A Way Forward
by RowanMackenzie24
Summary: Aiden just wants to get out and explore the wilderness, and everything he does moves him a little closer to that dream. But when he stumbles across a very disoriented and confused Night Fury in the woods, his priorities quickly begin to change. Human OC meets Night Fury OC in modern day setting. Will eventually expand into the multiverse and crossovers with other fandoms.
1. Chapter 1 - Meeting

**Chapter 1 – Meeting**

"Aiden I'm not paying you to sit there! Get on with it!" my boss called as he strode past the front counter.

I sighed heavily and pushed myself away from the worktop I had been leaning against. One of the downsides of working in a small café kitchen is that there's nowhere to take a five-minute break without being immediately spotted.

I began unloading the industrial dishwasher for the hundredth time that day, shaking my sleeve when water dripped out of a mug and down my arm. Ugh.

"And why is your rucksack in the stock room _again_?" he came back around the corner.

"Because it takes up too much space in the office, and that's the only other place I feel safe keeping it," I placed the mug back up on the shelf with the others.

"Keep it at home then! You don't need a _tent_ to come to work!" he replied exasperatedly.

"I like having it with me…" I reddened and went quiet, fingers automatically finding and rubbing the badge in my pocket. I could imagine every detail without even looking at it— 'National Space Centre' it read, 'Young Space Cadet'. Apparently, it was against safety regulations to wear it.

"Fine, it can stay there, but only because you're leaving tomorrow."

He walked away, and I relaxed.

"'Oh hey, look at all this really useful stuff, why don't you just leave it at home'," I muttered sarcastically to myself, shoving a couple of plates under the counter. "You'd think he'd remember when he ran out of painkillers and I just happened to have some, or when the stove was fu-"

"Excuse me?"

A customer was standing right in front of me.

"Uh…" I pushed the button on the wall to call someone over. "W-we'll have someone to serve you in a moment."

I quickly turned around, trying to hide my face and walked out of the kitchen to clear some tables.

Following that embarrassing incident, the hours dragged on until my shift for the day ended, and I was able to have lunch. After that I logged my hours, grabbed my—admittedly quite large—rucksack from the store room and made my way out to my bike chained to the fence.

It didn't take me long to get off the streets of Keswick and into the wooded trails that stretched for dozens of miles in all directions. I breathed a happy sigh as a smile made its way across my face. _This_ was why I always had my rucksack with me; I could just sod off into the wilderness for a few days any time I wanted to—and often did.

I was half-tempted to close my eyes as I zoomed down the dirt track, the wind blowing my hair around, hearing the birds and the creaking and rustling of the trees. But as much as this might be one of the few straight sections of path in the entire forest, I could still very easily crash. So, on that occasion, logic won out.

I had long since passed the ten-mile mark, and was hoping to push for further before I needed to turn back, when I heard a loud crash and thump ahead to my right.

That area was thick with bracken, but I could definitely see…_something_ moving. A pheasant maybe?

I cycled a little faster, hoping to get a look before it ran off.

My guess was very quickly thrown out the window and into oncoming traffic when the thing's head happened to appear above the foliage for a brief moment.

Black scales, huge pale-green eyes and ear fins on a large, wide face.

I stared at the space where it had been as it quickly disappeared out of my line of sight, turning my head as I continued down the trail to see if I could catch another glimpse of it. That couldn't have been…no, that was ridiculous.

Of course, I barely had time to process this before the very rare straight bit of dirt track ended and I had a head-on collision with a tree.

Thank god for bicycle helmets.

The next thing I knew, I was on the ground next to said tree, legs entangled in my bike and in a large amount of pain.

"Ow…" I groaned, trying to drag myself out from the frame of my bicycle. Not an easy thing to do when the thing you are trying to drag yourself out from under is made of metal, and you are also wearing a very heavy rucksack.

As I was flopping around on the ground like a depressed fish, I heard thumping and rustling coming from the bracken, followed by a yelp of pain and…crying?

I managed to haul myself out from under my bike and left my rucksack on the ground, feeling my head for injuries. That constant ache wasn't going away any time soon, and while the helmet definitely should have done its job, I couldn't help but feel paranoid that I might have a more serious injury.

I focused back on the sound, and what I'd seen only moments before exiting the seat of my bike in a most undignified fashion. That was definitely sobbing and crying I could hear, and a male voice by the sound of it. Along with…howling? Not wolf-like howling—I would have been seriously worried if that was the case, I thought they didn't exist in the UK—, but a sorrowful, keening, alien sound I'd never heard the likes of before.

I cautiously stepped into the chest-high foliage and began pushing through it, following the strange noises. The only things I could possibly think would be producing them would be a teenage boy and his dog; maybe they were stuck in a hole or something?

My thoughts immediately strayed back to the far-too recognizable shape that had appeared before. Maybe I _had_ hit my head too hard – I was remembering things wrong.

When I pushed through the last of the bracken, all of my fears were thrown into immediate focus.

It wasn't a dog walker or some kid that had gotten hurt.

It wasn't even from this _world_.

What I saw was a large black shape, curled up and quivering amongst crushed plants and leaves, huge—and I mean _huge_—wings wrapped around itself as if to block out everything around it, so much that I couldn't even make out the head. Its tail and legs too, were pulled tightly around its body.

I'm not sure what the noise that came out of my mouth when I saw this was—it was somewhere between a gasp and a shocked yelp, but it ended up in me inhaling too much air at once and choking on it. This immediately caught the attention of the creature in front of me, and when my eyes had stopped watering and my coughing subsided, it had pulled back one of its wings a little to look.

The face that I could see was the same one I had glimpsed before, and it was painfully familiar.

We were both perfectly still for several moments, watching each other. He—and I realized, it _was_ a he, judging by what I had heard earlier—seemed to be squinting and having trouble opening his eyes properly, keeping them in shadow with his wings. He had stopped crying, maybe out of shock from running into me, or for some other reason I didn't know.

"H-hello?"

My eyes widened in shock. I had seen his mouth move, I heard the noise that came out, but my brain refused to allow the two events to line up.

That was the final nail in the coffin for me.

Goosebumps sprang up all over my body and I backed away, feeling dizzy and nauseous. I shook my head violently, as if all of this would just disappear if I didn't believe it.

I took a couple of shaky steps back.

Then I started running.

I almost tripped immediately as I stumbled back through the bracken, my legs feeling like jelly.

"Wait!" I heard the dragon call behind me, along with a pained roar that only made me run all the faster. I glanced back to see him trying to get to his feet, only to immediately hit the ground again, as if he'd never used his legs before.

I just about fell on my bike as I reached it, clumsily pulling my rucksack over my shoulders. I pushed it back upright and pedalled my hardest to get away from that place.

_Focus, _I told myself. _Pedal and breathe, pedal and breathe._

I nearly crashed multiple times with my body as shaky as it was, and only got about half a mile before I had to stop to vomit in the bushes.

I collapsed against a tree trunk and simply lay there for a while, trying to calm myself down.

I couldn't have seen what I thought I'd seen. Not this soon after-

_No, stop, just breathe_ I told myself. I would feel a lot better if I didn't think about it.

I had hit my head too hard, and hallucinated. That was all.

After around half an hour, I got back on my bike, and cycled home.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

I attempted to get up and follow as I saw the human turn and run, but I had no idea how to use a physical form, and only succeeded in planting my face in the dirt, a horrible stinging feeling shooting through it.

"Come back!" I shouted desperately after him, cringing at the volume of my own roar.

I tried in vain to get my legs underneath myself, and managed to push forward a small distance before falling again.

"…Don't leave me here…" I whimpered, my sight blurring as the tears came back.

_Pain_, that's what it was called, I remembered. I had been briefly distracted from the sensation by that human, but now it was all back tenfold, and I _hated_ it.

The amount of light coming from the sky burned at my eyes, each noise caused my hearing to distort by how loud it seemed and everything that touched me felt like it was tearing the surface of my body to shreds. Smells overloaded my sinuses while the pain of my repeated falls and stumbles jabbed into my head and limbs.

I curled in on myself again, screwing my eyes shut and trying to distance myself from physical existence. This was so much worse than I ever could have imagined. I had barely even spoken to the person I had come here to help in the first place before he'd run off.

I just wanted to go home.

I tried to block everything physical out, and focus on the pattern matrix in my mind that would return me to the Above.

As soon as I did this, intense, searing pain whipped through my brain, so strong that I couldn't even think for several moments. I howled and clawed at my own head with my paws as if I could physically remove it.

What in all of Chaos and Order was that?

That matrix should have dissolved my physical form and taken me back!

I waited for the pain to fade away, before very carefully and slowly thinking of the pattern again.

Immediately I got the same result, and I could only wait for it to disappear, hot tears leaking from my clenched eyelids.

Why wasn't this working? Why was it causing me huge amounts of pain to even think about it?

I began to panic - was I stuck here forever? Would I be trapped in this body? What would happen to me? Would the Utopians look for me? Did they know what I'd done?

Oh Chaos, this was such a stupid, _idiotic_ thing to do! Why did I think _using _pattern matrices that I had no experience in, was a good idea? Or even leaving the Above? Tutor would be so worried…

_Slow down_, I told myself. Having a body to panic with wasn't helping, but I still had a rational mind. Tutor would be able to track where I had gone—he'd probably figure out I'd copied the matrices from him…

I just needed to keep safe until they found me, and took me back.

With this realization I began to focus back on the physical world, and my overwhelmed senses.

Actually…it didn't seem as bad any more.

I slowly uncurled myself, raising my head and cautiously squinting through one eye. The light hurt a little at first, but it quickly began to fade. I felt something raise from the back of my head, and the sounds of the environment started to come through clearly. I needed to take a look at my physical form and hopefully figure out what I was stuck as, but I was quickly distracted by how _beautiful _everything was.

It outshined anything I could have possibly begun to imagine, if I had been able to do so at all. Seeing thoughts, ideas and emotions in a complex Network could be mesmerizing at times, but the physical world put it to shame a hundred times over.

The first thing that drew my attention were the colours. Pale greens and yellows dominated the area I was in thanks to the plant life growing from the brown earth. The trunks and branches of the trees were a mix of greys, beiges and other shades of brown that I couldn't even begin to name while the leaves were little bursts of oranges, reds and greens. Beyond them I could see nothing but white and light grey, the occasional patch of bright blue shining through.

The wind rustled through the air, causing a slight shiver to go down my back while the star of this planet warmed it at the same time. I could hear chirps, coos and little skitters from the creatures that inhabited this place, and a completely unidentifiable smell filled my nose.

The Utopian Library that I was drawing this knowledge from to even fathom any of this barely scratched the surface of what was around me. Then again, the Utopians sent their expeditions out to all of the multiverse, which was as diverse as you could possibly get, and as a result almost none of it applied to this single, small universe. And this was just one little place, on one little planet, in one little star system!

Excitement bubbled up inside me and a happy gurgle escaped my throat as my mind raced with the possibilities. Because the multiverse was so vast, I had no idea what could be out there! It could be literally anything, and I still would never have seen it before!

I simply lay there for some time, still trying to process what I had been missing all the time I had been in the Above. There, I could only see how sentient creatures interacted through Connections and Networks and how their minds were affected. Nothing had prepared me for physical space, not the Library, not the descriptions of those who had returned from expeditions, nothing.

Eventually, the strange movement I kept feeling on my head when I heard a louder than usual noise reminded me that I needed to take a good look at my own physical form. I hadn't a clue what I was, or what I was capable of.

I slowly and methodically tried to get my legs underneath me again. The sensation of being pulled downwards at all times by gravity was extremely foreign to me, just as much as having muscles to use was. I brought one foreleg forward, pushing down into the ground and feeling the pressure between the bottom of the paw and my shoulder. I did the same with the other foreleg, and succeeded in pushing the front of my body upward.

The back legs were more difficult since I couldn't easily see them, and I ended up trying to emulate the same feeling I had in my front legs, scrabbling at the earth and eventually managing to get them under me. Now that I was up, I could get a proper look at my body.

…Were those _wings?!_ How had I not noticed them before now? And a long tail too, black scales all over and a line of spines going from my shoulders all the way down to twin tailfins. Yet no matter how much I turned and twisted my neck I could not see those things that kept twitching about on my head.

I needed to see myself from the front…somehow. A reflection! But, according to the Library, I could only get one of those from very still liquid, or polished metal, neither of which I could see in the immediate vicinity.

I resigned myself to be annoyed by the random movements of my head attachments and took a better look at the area. So…what did I do now? That human definitely wasn't coming back any time soon, so my original intent to help was gone. Now, I just had to wait for Tutor, or one of the other entities to find me, and I was stuck here for the moment so…

Time to explore!

I bounded forward, finding my back legs were extremely good for springing long distances, soared through the air for a brief moment, before my face plunged into the dirt for the nth time that day, and I immediately regretted my decision.

Maybe I should try to get the hang of walking first.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

For the entire rest of that day, I tried to distract myself from what I'd seen in the woods.

No, _hadn't seen_, I reminded myself—it was a hallucination.

I watched tv, ordered a takeaway, watched more tv—I even got so desperate as to start scrolling social media sites. Eventually, I got tired enough that I went to bed at around nine, hoping I could get some good sleep in before my final day of work.

The unfortunate thing about sleeping, is that you need to either a) be so exhausted you fall asleep almost immediately, or b) be able to clear your mind of thoughts so you can allow yourself to fall asleep.

So, having a certain dragon invading my mind at every given opportunity meant that I didn't have much luck.

Three hours of tossing, turning, and frustrated groaning later, and I got back out of bed.

"Fine. Fine! You know what, I'll go back out to those woods, and _prove_ that I saw nothing! Then can I have some bloody sleep?!" I ranted to myself, changing into my usual outdoor clothes. And when I found absolutely _nothing_, I could cycle home, and that would surely make me tired enough to fall asleep.

Of course, I realized the problem as soon as I left the front door of the building.

It was _midnight_.

The forest trails would be pitch black, since there wasn't exactly much lighting outside of town. It was for moments like these that I always, _always_ had my rucksack with me.

I took a headtorch out of one of the small side pockets, and was able to securely wrap it around the handlebars of my bike with the elastic straps. It wasn't exactly as powerful as car headlights, but it would do the job well enough. I just had to be careful.

As I set off, the thought that kept running through my head was '_Why the _hell_ are you doing this?_'. I could easily crash and seriously injure myself, there was always a chance I might get lost, despite knowing these trails like the back of my hand, and all for a hallucination?!

But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

I followed the same paths I had before for about five miles, keeping a slower pace and with my arms tensed and ready for anything. The further I went, the more paranoid I got that a rock would somehow slip under my wheels without me seeing it and send me flying.

Then, as I reached a Y fork in the track, something very strange happened. On the route I had taken earlier that day—or I supposed, yesterday now—I had taken a right turn here.

_Turn left_ my brain insisted.

What?

I slowed down as I reached the split, trying to figure out why every part of my body seemingly wanted to go the wrong way. It was like a little virus, taking over my mind and then just sitting there, niggling at me to do what it wanted.

I genuinely couldn't bring myself to cycle down the right turn.

I shook my head in disbelief and went to the left. Immediately, I was rewarded with a weird feeling of…relief?

I put it down to sleep deprivation, and carried on. I could always take a right turn further along, and get back to the same route.

Except, when I got to the next fork, the exact same thing happened.

This time, I got off my bike, pulled the headtorch off it, and walked a short distance down the track my weird gut feeling was pulling me towards. I could only see a dozen meters in front of me, but that…that was the river I could hear.

I had gone much further off track that I'd realized if I was already at the river – where was this instinctual gut feeling thing leading me?

I got my answer when the trail turned to gravel as it met the shore of the river, and my headtorch lit up a large, dark shape lying on it.

_It was real_.

I would have dropped my headtorch right then and there in shock if not for the fact that it was, y'know, strapped to my head.

I stood there silently, completely flabbergasted, trying not to move in case it heard me. _Him_, I reminded myself. Right, of course, how silly of me. I forgot that this dragon was sentient and could_ fucking talk_.

I took several deep, shuddering breaths, and then took a step forward, my walking boots crunching in the gravel. I winced, expecting the dragon to immediately look over for the source of the sound.

Nothing.

He was probably asleep, I reasoned. I was the only one stupid enough to be awake at this hour, wandering around the forest.

I took another step forward, then when there was no response, several more.

'_What exactly is your plan here?' _ I asked myself. I had proven it was real, and that I hadn't hallucinated at all…so now what?

I mean, this was a _Night Fury _of all things. Something fictional that I was…connected to, just existing in this world, beyond all reason. My curiosity was thoroughly piqued.

But if what had happened yesterday was real, why had he seemingly been in pain? What was out there that could hurt a dragon? Then again, if one dragon existed, what was stopping literally anything else from existing, no matter how impossible it seemed? Maybe there was something hunting him down?

And I had run off, leaving him there, hurt, scared and alone.

I might as well have kicked a puppy.

The least I could do now was offer some help—I knew the area really well and I had all sorts of things that might come in useful in my rucksack.

'_But how are you going to help a dragon_?' the logical voice in my head asked.

_Shut up_, I told it, and steeled myself for what I was about to do. What was that phrase about letting sleeping dragons lie?

"Hello?"

My voice cracked, and I swallowed. But there was no response.

"Hello?" I tried again, taking a couple of steps closer. He was only feet away now. Maybe dragons slept very deeply?

I took a deep breath—this was probably the stupidest thing I'd ever done.

I crossed the small distance left between us, and laid a hand on his scales.

Cold.

Far, far too cold.

Oh Jesus was he dead?

A shudder ran through my body as I realized what might have happened. Was this my fault? When I left him before, had I…?

All of my trepidations and bewilderment fell to the back of my mind as I began desperately searching for a pulse. I ran around the front of his body and hauled one of his wings out of the way, pressing my hand to his neck.

For several seconds, I didn't dare to breathe.

There!

I let out a relieved gasp and half-fell over backwards onto the gravel. Okay, he's not dead, thank god, but why are his scales so cold?

It was at this point I noticed the stones I was sitting on were damp. And while this seems like a stupid observation, it being next to the river and all, it wasn't like rivers had tides, and it was far enough back that even a large splash wouldn't cause the entire area to be…

As I was looking down at the shore, my headtorch passed over the area between myself and the river, and I realized that there was a very dragon-sized trail of damp shingle leading from it to where he was lying.

So…he had fallen in the river? But how would that cause him to become so cold that he passed out?

Scales.

He was a cold-blooded reptile! I didn't know exactly how it worked—I knew snakes didn't just die if there was a cold breeze, that wouldn't make sense—but I knew all reptiles needed heat. And if he didn't have any body heat, and had fallen into the river, then he likely had whatever the dragon version of hypothermia was.

And he wasn't shivering.

I was in no way a medical expert, veterinarian or biologist, but I knew that was a _really_ bad sign.

I immediately sprang into action, dumping my rucksack on the ground and running back towards the trees. I'd just been sitting there wasting time whilst he'd been slowly dying right in front of me!

I began grabbing any small sticks I could find on the ground and snapping others off low-hanging branches, quickly arranging them in a vague pyramid shape right in front of the dragon. I had a brief moment of doubt since I didn't know for sure whether his scales were actually fireproof, but the chance was so small, and the closer the fire was to him, the quicker he would warm up.

I then splashed a small amount of bioethanol onto the wood pile and lit a match—normally I kept the liquid fuel for emergencies when it was raining, and even tried to avoid using matches when necessary—but I wasn't taking any chances. As soon as the little flame got near the wood it sprang to life, heat radiating out from it. The fuel would keep it going strong for a while, and the damp gravel beneath it would stop it from accidentally spreading to anything, so it was safe to leave burning.

I threw my jacket off and placed it over his neck, but it was pitifully small compared to the size of his body, never mind his wings. I needed something bigger if I wanted it to have any effect.

I practically ripped my sleeping bag out of its cover and unzipped its entire length, wrapping it as closely as I could around his back and sides. I was almost tempted to take the canvas of my tent out and try to cover one of his wings with it, but I realized it might catch alight over the campfire.

I started bringing some larger branches back and setting them over the fire—my plan was to heat up some water, either to pour over the colder parts of his body, or for him to drink once he woke up. I unhooked what was essentially a small cauldron and some metal rods from my rucksack and began to set them up. I placed two on each side that had a connecting hinge near the top, buried both into the ground a ways so they would stay in that position in an 'X' shape, then slid the handle of the cooking pot over a single straight rod, sitting that on the hinges of the supports at the sides.

I realize most people would have a much smaller or easier way of cooking food over a campfire, but having a pot meant I could basically chuck anything in it along with some water, and it would cook it. If I needed to, I could also just remove the pot and use the horizontal rod as a skewer. It was simple, easy to set up, and easy to clean.

I made a couple of trips to and from the river with a water bottle to fill it, and then it was just a matter of waiting. I walked around his back and began rubbing the unzipped sleeping bag back and forward—the material it was made out of slid on his scales fairly easily, but hopefully it would create enough friction to generate heat.

I kept this up for around five minutes, repeatedly checking on the fire to make sure it was still burning and the water was still heating up. Once it had gotten to the temperature where I couldn't keep my hand in it, I put the pot off to the side.

I returned to the dragon's back and began rubbing my jacket on his neck, suppressing a yawn. I was starting to feel really tired now, but I couldn't stop—not until I knew he was at least beginning to recover. A chilly breeze blew through the trees and made goosebumps spring up all down my arms.

I continued this for…God I really don't know. Time was beginning to blur in my exhausted state and every time I felt my eyelids closing, I snapped them open again with no idea how long had passed. I had to keep taking the water on and off the fire to keep it at the right temperature, and I poured a little over his tail a couple of times.

Eventually I was broken from my near-stupor by his body shuddering and shaking, quickly spreading to all of his limbs.

I nearly collapsed against him in relief—despite how it seemed, I knew this was a really good sign.

"P-please d-do-don't stop," he croaked, twisting his neck a little to look at me. I only met his eyes for a moment before looking away, but that desperate pleading expression was enough.

I carried on alternating between rubbing his back and neck, beginning to feel immensely ashamed of myself, and responsible for everything. Why had I just left him there, when he was so obviously in need of help? Why had I freaked out over even seeing him?

_Because of Sophie_ my brain chimed in.

_Shut up!_

I did not need to think about that right now, I had enough to deal with.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I began muttering, over and over again. He didn't respond, but his shivering was gradually slowing down. That was good—I didn't think I'd be able to handle a heartfelt conversation with a dragon right now.

He was beginning to shift himself closer to the campfire, as if he wasn't nearly on top of it before. He unfurled one of his wings over it to allow the surface to warm up, and curled himself around the heat source. I remembered that I had boiled water for him, and moved the cooking pot over to his head.

"Here, drink this," I tipped it towards him, pushing it forward against the ground with the handle. He began to lap it up with his tongue, and despite knowing exactly what Night Furies looked like, the size of his mouth still surprised me.

I walked away and tried not to stare at him, sitting myself down on the gravel a short distance from the fire. I still hadn't quite wrapped my head around the fact that there was a dragon in front of me.

I ended up gazing up at the stars, which were bright enough that you could even see the faint shape of the Milky Way stretching into the endless void. I wasn't really sure what to do now—how do you even begin to communicate with a fictional creature whose life you had just potentially almost ended, and then saved?

I ended up lying down on the gravel, uncomfortable as it was, and staring vacantly upwards.

Moments later, I was out cold and fast asleep.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

I greedily lapped up the last of the hot water the human had given me. It had done wonders to stop my shaking, and I could feel a pleasant burning sensation all the way down my body. I nudged the metal pot back upright and glanced over at him. He looked like he had collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, and I felt a little guilty. Even though he had run away before, he obviously cared, enough to save me.

I had been absolutely ecstatic at first, to be finally exploring the physical world, examining every last little detail, every little creature I could find. But over the course of time I'd found myself becoming dizzy, disoriented, and a little scared. When I searched the Library for answers, I realized I needed to maintain my body with food and water, and would end up dead if I didn't. There was no record of any entity's physical form dying in the Library though, and I had no idea whether my mind would die with it.

Desperate, I had searched for water and found the wide river. Quenching my thirst was easy enough, but I had no idea how to get food. Then I'd spotted some shimmering under the river's surface, and had dived in, hoping to catch whatever was moving around. I had underestimated how fast and deep the water flowed, and before I knew it, I was breathing in liquid and choking on it. I had hit something hard, became completely lost in the pain and shock, and had somehow managed to flail my way onto the shoreline.

Terrified, hungry, in pain and shivering violently I had tried to block it all out and retreat to my mind, but had no luck. Everything I experienced invaded my head and stuck there, forcing me through each little sensation.

The next thing I knew, I was awake again, with the human bringing warmth and comfort back to me.

I pushed myself up, now a little more used to the action, stretching my stiff muscles. I padded over to him, shaking the soft materials he'd put over me onto the ground. I gently tried to nose him towards the thicker one without waking him up. This didn't achieve much, and I didn't dare use my paws for fear of hurting him with my claws. I resorted to scooping him up with my wing and depositing him on the strange cloth, grabbing a corner of it with my mouth and dragging him closer to the fire.

I lay back down next to him, leaving my wing resting over his unconscious body.

I could at least make sure he was warm too.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

**Author's Note**

First of all, if you saw the previous version I posted of this, just….ssshhh, ignore it :P Honestly it was terrible compared to this, but it did result in me getting some fantastic feedback. The people over at r/httyd are just the best, so thank you to all of them for helping me out. I also need to thank Layla for being my editor and refining the cover image so it doesn't look crap.

I don't know how quickly I'll be posting updates to this story; it depends on how much I've got going on, but I'm aiming for one chapter every two months at the ABSOLUTE minimum. I should mention that this story will be branching into the multiverse much later, and by that, I mean crossovers, and going into the HTTYD world itself.

Constructive criticism is 100% welcome, and thanks for reading!

Rowan


	2. Chapter 2 - Acclimatization

**Chapter 2 – Acclimatization**

I think the Night Fury just about had a heart attack when my phone's alarm went off.

See, the way I have it set is so that the alarm sound itself is loud, sudden and wakes me up immediately, otherwise I'll just sleep in. My phone was in the pocket of my trousers, and—as I realized moments later—the dragon was sleeping right next to me. Evidently, he'd not heard a sound like that before.

As a result, several events happened in quick succession.

Obviously, the alarm sounded, and both the Night Fury and I woke up immediately. Difference was, I woke up like normal, opened my eyes and sat up. He leapt about ten feet into the air screaming in terror, and when he came down again was snarling at whatever was making the noise. Which was in my pocket.

You can't really prepare for having the experience of a dragon snarling at you. It's not fun.

Not. At. All.

I back-pedalled on all fours away from him in fear, not thinking of where I was going before my hand hit the ash of last night's campfire and I felt pain shoot across my palm.

I swore and scrambled to my feet, running to the river to soak my burn in the cold water. Conveniently, this was also away from the large previously very-angry looking creature with vicious claws. I fumbled my phone out of my pocket with my other hand and hastily turned the alarm off, glancing over to see what the dragon was doing.

Somewhere in the back of my head, a little voice commented _'I should probably give him a name'_.

Priorities brain, priorities.

Said dragon was now looking quite worried as he came bounding over, and I flinched as he got close. Only moments ago, he had been looking like he was going to eat me, and he was still quite a large creature. Combine that with the fact that I was kneeling down by the river, and my eyeline was at half the height it was usually, his gesture of concern ended up feeling quite intimidating.

"Oh Chaos, are you okay? I'm sorry I just panicked and I didn't know what that sound was—"

"Stop!" I said, maybe a little too loud. "I'm fine…just…I'm not used to any of…" I gestured vaguely to him. "…this."

"Oh," he deflated and backed off.

I breathed a sigh of relief and pulled my hand out of the water briefly to examine it, finding that it was barely a burn at all, the skin was only red. I put it back in the water, just in case.

"And that sound you heard," I explained, sitting down on the gravel. "Was my phone's alarm going off. It shouldn't happen again though, because today is my last day of—"

It was then that I remembered _why _I had set the alarm in the first place.

"SHIT!" I jumped to my feet and sprinted over to my rucksack. "I need to be at work in an hour!"

"What?" he padded alongside me as I tried to stuff several things into it, and then realizing that wasn't going to happen very quickly, settled for just pouring some water over the remains of the campfire to make sure it was properly out. I didn't have time to pack anything up—I would barely be able to get to work in time as it was.

"I need to go, and I'll be back in like…six hours-ish," I closed my rucksack up, and ran over to where my bike had been discarded on the path the night before. "Make sure no-one steals anything, please?"

He just gave me a blank stare, his head cocked to the side.

"How long is six hours?"

"It's…okay, you know the sun?"

"…huh?"

"The bright ball thing in the sky, over there!" I gestured to where it was just beginning to show through the trees. "When _that_ is above the treeline, around here—," I pointed up, roughly where I guessed it would be in the early afternoon. "—I'll be back."

"Oh, the star?"

"Yes!" I was on my bike now, itching to just _go_.

"But I'm hungry…" he looked at me pleadingly.

"I'll buy you some food on my way back alright? You could try to catch a rabbit or something in the meantime, just stay around here, I need to go," I babbled, pushing forward on my bike.

"And don't jump in the river again!" I shouted over my shoulder as he receded into the distance.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

I watched him disappear around a corner with a million questions racing through my mind.

What was a rabbit? How long was an hour? What was a phone? Why had they called their planet's star the sun? What food was he going to bring back? What was a 'shit'?

Ugh, and I wouldn't get to ask him until he was finished at work. That was one of the things the Library could tell me about—a lot of the multiverse involved work, and a lot of species had language equivalents for that word. The same applied to a few of the other strange words and phrases he'd used thankfully, so I wasn't completely in the dark.

I was hungry though. The squeezing, aching feeling in my stomach really wasn't a pleasant sensation, and I tried to ignore it by lapping up some water from the river.

…so what did I do now?

The human (I really needed to find out if they had names) had told me to stay 'around here', and to make sure nobody stole anything. That seemed awfully cruel—why would anyone steal things? But if he was worried about it, it must be something the humans here did. I couldn't stray too far in that case.

I began wandering around the area around our little camp, discovering a bridge across the river further down. I would occasionally spot something moving out of the corner of my eye, but before I could even think to get a closer look, they would disappear. All of the plants and bushes in the area looked the same, and I got bored quite quickly.

I wanted to see more stuff, _different_ stuff! I knew it had to be out there, but I didn't want to go exploring only to come back and find the human's things had been stolen. I began to feel quite paranoid, and quickly made my way back to the riverside.

Thank the Powers, it was all still there.

I breathed a sigh of relief and began to think on my situation.

I needed to go faster and get around quicker if I wanted to see anything new, but—as I had discovered while exploring—the forest floor was covered in little bumps and holes, rocks and streams that were concealed by all the bushes, and you wouldn't know they were there until you were right on top of them.

But the human had been going quite quickly on whatever contraption he'd been using on the clear, flattened lines (paths?) through the woods. Maybe I could use that to my advantage, and try running on them—I had gotten used to walking quite quickly, so this couldn't be that hard right?

I made my way onto the path and tried just speeding up my walk to begin with. I stumbled a couple of times as I got used to the motion, but then I began to speed up and found I could dig my claws in a little to launch myself forward faster. I stayed on the trails, twisting and turning between the trees and soon I wasn't even aware of the actions my body was making. My legs seemed to move of their own accord, hitting the ground in pairs and bringing me to incredible speeds. I roared in glee as I gave in to my instincts, the pounding of my heart and air rushing over my scales felt incredible!

Before long I was approaching the river again, and a brilliant idea flashed through my head.

I veered off the path, just to the side of the bridge that spanned the water's width. There was a clearing here that led down onto the shingle, and the same was true for the other side. A brief moment of doubt passed through me as I reached the water's edge, remembering what had happened the last time I fell in.

But then I jumped, and all my uncertainty disappeared.

I tucked my paws close to my body and closed my eyes as my wings naturally unfurled, catching the air beneath them as my tail straightened out behind me, arced gently downwards. I could feel every movement in the wind, little warm and cold bursts nudging me in every direction. Every noise seemed to fall away for the few seconds I was in flight, leaving only my heartbeat and the rushing of air.

And then it was over as quickly as it started.

My only warning was the feeling of my stomach rising up to meet my throat, and I snapped open my eyes to see the gravel of the opposite shoreline zooming up to meet me. I drew in a shocked breath and managed to get my legs out beneath me before I was tumbling over and over, the pain of impact combining with the stings of little stones all over me as I rolled.

It took me a few seconds to realize I had stopped and even then, I could barely move, only able to clench my eyes shut as the aches washed over me. Through all this though, there was only one thought dominating my mind.

I needed to do that _again_.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

Work was…interesting.

I arrived heaving for air, sweating profusely and only a couple of minutes late. My boss had a go at me for it, saying I should at least have the courtesy to arrive on time on my last day. Next, I very quickly found out there was something wrong with the dishwasher, meaning we would have to wash everything by hand. Finally, to top it all, two tour busses showed up out of nowhere.

Normally, tours like that book ahead, so the places they're going to can prepare for the sheer amount of people coming in and ordering at once. This café could barely hold twenty people, never mind more than sixty.

So yeah, I didn't have a _brilliant_ last day.

Any time I was engrossed in a repetitive task though, my thoughts immediately strayed back to the Night Fury in the woods. I couldn't help it—how could you experience something _that_ strange yet familiar, and _not_ think about it?

He seemed so…off. There's being a dragon, and then there's not knowing what the _sun_ is. Then again, I supposed the sun was a human-made word for it. He did know it was a star, which was interesting—there were some idiots who lived on Earth their whole lives and didn't know the sun was a star.

I began theorizing on where he could have come from—how could a fictional being just…exist? Unless, multiverse theory accounted for that—if universes were infinite, then a universe of the How To Train Your Dragon films existed, right? But then, since when did dragons talk? When I thought about it, I had heard both English and the sounds I'd expect a dragon to make, which made things even more confusing. If he _was_ from the HTTYD universe, then shouldn't he have been aggressive? Or at least, known not to freeze to death in a river?

Wait a minute, weren't Night Furies meant to be nearly extinct in that universe?

I would just have to ask him when I got back. That would be one entertaining conversation.

I couldn't keep referring to him as 'the dragon' either—I needed a name. This clearly wasn't the Toothless I knew, and he seemed more…sentient than an animal, so that complicated things. Giving a talking, aware creature a name like 'Scales' or 'Spike' just seemed…demeaning, and he might have a name already—again, I would need to ask him. But I needed something at least temporary, just to give him an identity of some sort.

I leaned against the countertop and felt a twinge of pain shoot through my hand, where I had burned it on the ashes of the campfire. I stared at the red mark for a few seconds, my brain churning over the problem.

Ashburn!

It was fitting for both a dragon and a human—perfect.

"Aiden, keep going, we've still got orders coming in!"

Oh right, that's what I was doing. I blinked myself out of my daze and kept washing dishes.

Thankfully the café was closing early that day, since I wasn't the only employee leaving, and they'd decided to host a little gathering. So, after we shooed all the customers out—as politely as possible of course—we pulled a few of the tables together and made ourselves lunch.

I was having a lovely time talking as little as possible and thinking about making an early escape, when my boss decided to make my life a living hell.

"Would anyone like to say a few words? Aiden, do you want to start?"

And just like that, everyone was staring at me.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. What the hell was I supposed to say? That I'd barely tolerated this place, and would be glad to be rid of it? The seconds dragged achingly on and I felt a distinct sense of dread and fear take over, as the silence became more and more awkward. My heartrate sped up and I began to sweat, feeling nauseous and cold all of a sudden.

My vision darkened around the edges and I heard a muffled voice in the distance. Oh god why had he done that?! I could barely breathe, I felt like I could vomit at any moment and I'd not done anything to deserve this. Everything was horrible, the small amount of positivity I had before was long gone and the world felt like it was ending around me.

I pushed my chair back with shaky arms and staggered towards the storeroom, with every intention of just leaving.

I didn't want to be here anymore, and I didn't need to—I'd logged my hours and I would likely never see any of these people ever again. I heard someone call after me, and the others were definitely talking behind my back about my 'exit', but I did not care.

I hurriedly grabbed one of the straps of my rucksack and walked swiftly out the front door before anyone could stop me. As soon as my hand closed around the rubber handlebars of my bike, I felt the shakiness fading away, and I took some deep breaths.

In for three seconds…out for five. In for three…out for five.

I sent a silent thank you to my dad for teaching me that specific rhythm as the nausea disappeared too.

I hauled the straps of my rucksack across my shoulders and sighed in relief at the familiar weight. I wouldn't have to work again for a long time now, so my worries were thrown to the wind as I fell back into comfortable familiarity.

Kind of. I _was_ going to the supermarket to get food for a dragon, but that still felt more reassuring that being pressured into talking in front of people.

No, not 'a dragon', I reminded myself; Ashburn. Assuming he didn't have a name of his own.

When I arrived, I made a beeline for the fishmonger's section, knowing they had whole fish for sale, rather than just fillets. I had bought half a dozen haddock, salmon and mackerel before I remembered that he was a carnivore, not just a fish-eater.

Realizing that, I got several different roasts as well, avoiding chicken since I didn't know whether that would be safe for him to eat. It was quite expensive, but I had a lot of money saved up from work—that was the idea after all—and it was only for today.

Hopefully Ashburn would figure out how to hunt for himself soon.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

Finally!

I stared at my reflection, intently watching those annoying hearing sensors move about on my head.

I had gotten bored of jumping the river after a little while—I had tried to land better, glide for longer and jump higher, but nothing seemed to work. Everything my body did on its own seemed to be better than what I could accomplish by actually thinking about it, and so I had gone back to running around the area, seeing what I could find by following all the different paths.

Then, I had spotted the thing I'd been searching for yesterday—a still pool of water. I could see what my own face looked like at last.

…Why were my eyes so huge?

I turned my face this way and that, examining every detail—I didn't look even remotely like anything else I'd seen in this forest so far. I opened my mouth, surprised by how wide it could go.

Hm. I was no expert on the creatures on this planet—Chaos knows I wasn't—but weren't there supposed to be things _in _my mouth, other than my to-

I yelped as I heard, felt and saw two rows of white teeth shoot out of the top and bottom of my jaws. I drew my lips back as far as I could, experimentally running my tongue along them and pressing them together. Even though I'd only spent a day in this body, it felt very weird to suddenly have them _there_.

And then I realized a slight problem.

How did I get them back _in_?

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

I was quite happily cycling through the forest, shopping bags full of various meats hung from my handlebars, when a woman came running and screaming towards me.

"HELP! HEEELP!" she screeched.

I immediately stopped and got off my bike, confused and concerned.

"Wooah, woah, slow down, what's happened?" I put out my hands in a placating gesture, trying to calm her down.

"T-t-there's a-a-a _thing_ back there! It's HUGE a-a-and its TEETH! T-t-they—" she was blubbering and wailing, gesticulating wildly as she ran back and forth, making it extremely difficult to understand what she was saying. I got the gist though.

"What kind of 'thing' is it?"

"HUGE!" she repeated, waving her arms around to make her point. "Terrifying black monstrosity! And the TEETH!" She was getting right in my face and I tried to push her away.

"Wait a minute, slow down," I sighed, beginning to suspect what had happened. "Did this creature have big green eyes? And scales?"

"Y-y-yes! And the eyes! I'll never forget those eyes!"

"Yeaaah, okay," I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a lot less worried for the woman, and getting slightly annoyed now. "You just saw a large dog, that's all. Or a Komodo dragon. Your choice."

"This was no DOG!" she was back to screaming hysterically now, and I moved back to my bicycle. "It was going to EAT ME!"

"I wish he had, so we wouldn't be having this conversation," I muttered.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"Go home," I said firmly, pushing forward on the pedals and carrying on my way. She kept yelling after me, but I just ignored her as her voice became more and more distant. There was overreacting, and then there was _overreacting_.

I continued on into the forest, taking the same turns as I had last night. Interestingly, that strange compulsion I had before was gone, and there was nothing stopping me from going right instead of left.

When I was about a mile from the river shore where I'd had to leave my things, I saw Ashburn come running down the track to meet me, and put on the brakes as he came skidding to a stop a few feet away.

Sure enough, he'd discovered his retractable teeth.

"Uh, um, there was a woman, and I tried to ask her for help but—"

"Yeah, I ran into her on the way here, she was going a bit mental," I pulled a face. Ashburn stared at the ground, earfins pulled back.

"…Sorry…I don't know what I did!"

"You didn't do anything," I sighed. "That's the kind of reaction you'll get from pretty much everyone I'm afraid—somewhere between freaked out and terrified. That's…kind of the reason I told you to stick around the camp. Remember when I came across you yesterday?"

"Oh…" he looked even more crestfallen.

"Look, it's just that nobody is used to seeing…you. You're not exactly from around here...but we can get to that later. I brought you some food, and I'm guessing you're starving."

His expression perked up and he finally seemed to catch the scent of all the meat I had in my shopping bags as his nose twitched and belly rumbled.

"Whatever that is, it smells really good!" he poked his nose into one of the bags, and I had to push him back before he tried to eat something with the packaging still on.

"No, wait, wait, we should get back to the river first. I'll need to cut off all the plastic before you can eat it," I laughed.

"Awww, fine," he backed off, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"…what?" I asked suspiciously.

"Race ya!" he suddenly took off down the path, and I was left in stunned silence for a moment, watching his dark form disappear into the distance.

"Wha—hey!" I began pedalling furiously after him, trying to counter my false start. I had years of experience cycling, and I _knew_ these trails. But he was a Night Fury, so what chance did I have?

After getting about halfway, and still not seeing even the tip of his tail, I slowed down to a more casual pace, slightly out of breath.

None, apparently.

He was waiting for me at the camp site, bouncing impatiently in circles on his paws, and I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

"Come ooon, you're so slooow," he whined.

"And just how exactly, was I supposed to outrun a _dragon_?" I retorted.

He stopped bouncing; his head tilted to one side.

"What's a dragon?"

I stared at him for a moment in disbelief.

Then I burst out laughing.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I struggled to get off my bike while laughing so hard and nearly fell over in the process, my chest tight with mirth. "Ahahaha, oh my god, that's amazing! HAHAHAHAAA!" I had to bend over, unable to contain myself.

"Hey! Don't laugh at me…" he looked dejected enough that I almost managed to stop.

Almost.

"Ahahaaa…ohhh…sorry," I tried to wipe my watering eyes. "That was just…too perfect."

I got nothing but a scowl. It was probably well deserved.

"Sorry," I repeated, more serious this time. "A dragon is what you are—a Night Fury to be specific." I began pulling the meat I'd bought out of the plastic bags and brought out a swiss army knife to cut them out of their packaging.

"Oh."

"How do you not know that? Actually, y'know what, don't answer that yet—here," I threw the first couple of fish to him, and he snapped one of them out of the air.

"Finally!" he began tearing into everything I chucked his way, only slowing down when he reached the roasts. I put all the cardboard and plastic back in my shopping bags, then went around the burnt-out fire, picking up and shaking a few stones and leaves off my jacket and sleeping bag. I packed everything I'd left there back into its place in my rucksack and by the time I'd done that, Ashburn was almost finished eating.

I settled myself down on the grassy verge at the edge of the gravel and looked over at him.

"Alright, spill it."

"Spill what?" he gulped down the last of his meal, licking his lips in appreciation.

"What are you doing here, how do you exist, and why do you not know what you _are_?"

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

**Author's Note**

Sorry, shorter chapter this time. I needed a more natural place to end it, and this was the only one I could find without making the chapter too long. Oh, and if you picked up on the HTTYD reference right at the beginning, and are annoyed I didn't complete the quote, I did try but it seemed forced, so I left it.

Thank you once again to Layla for being my editor, and to everyone who left me feedback on the previous chapter. Reviews are always greatly appreciated, and constructive criticism even more so. Thanks for reading!

Rowan


	3. Chapter 3 - Learning

**Author's Note**

So, this is again a much shorter chapter, because I had some serious writing block whilst working on it, and I wanted to get an update out there before too long passed. I also conveniently reached a nice natural ending point.

Next chapter will be much longer, I promise. I also need to mention that everything that gets revealed here, and throughout this whole first story, is my own original idea. I had a couple of people ask—including my lovely beta readers netWARIOR and Layla, who helped me get through this chapter—whether the Above was from another fandom or something, so I figured I'd better clarify.

Enjoy!

Rowan

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

**Chapter 3 – Learning**

"What are you doing here, how do you exist, and why do you not know what you _are_?"

"Oh. Right," Ashburn kneaded the ground with his paws.

"Yeah," I was more than ready for answers.

"Um…I don't really know where to start. I'm not sure you would understand where I…come from," he pulled a face, looking up at me.

"I'm guessing it has something to do with multiverse theory?"

"Yes! Yes, it does!" he brightened, earfins perked up. "That makes things a lot easier, I didn't know if your world had that yet…um okay."

He took a deep breath.

"Where I'm from, it's called The Above. We observe the whole multiverse, and we try to help each universe towards an ideal, utopian, peaceful state. Or at least…some of us do, but I'll get back to that," a pained expression crossed his face for a brief moment.

"The thing is, there's no physical space there. There's no width, depth or height—the only things we experience are thought and the passage of time. We're just minds in null space, with emotions and ideas," Ashburn began to pace back and forward as he talked. At this point, I had completely muted out the growls and burbles of dragon speech, and was totally enraptured by what he was telling me.

"We have Connections to each other, formed when we meet or are introduced. Through those Connections we create Networks of minds who can cooperate on working towards a common goal. The best thing though, is that any two entities with a Connection can read each other's thoughts, which means there's almost no conflict, because each entity already knows both sides from the others' thoughts, and there's no misunderstandings!" he turned to me with a grin and saw my half awed, half dumbstruck expression. "What?"

"…nothing, really, I just…" I blinked a few times, remembering to close my mouth. "I'm just absorbing the information that the multiverse is actually a _thing_, everything that could exist _does_, and you're from one of those places and…and…" I slowly began to laugh. Not the natural kind of laugh that bubbles up in your chest after a good joke, but the kind of stuttery, hiccupping and manic laugh that you're surprised is even able to come out of your mouth.

"You're…you're an alien! I made first contact with an alien!" I pulled my space cadet badge out of my pocket and gave it a triumphant stare. "HA! Suck it NASA!"

Ashburn was giving me a confused and slightly concerned look.

"What…are you doing?"

"Oh nothing, it's just that you've fulfilled one of my life goals, something that I thought was well beyond my reach for years," I couldn't stop the huge grin that stretched across my face.

"You're welcome, I guess?" he gave me a bemused smile in return. "Can I carry on now?"

"Yeah, don't mind me," I replied, still beaming.

"Right, um, so I mentioned not everyone wants to help the multiverse. There's basically three main Networks of entities in the Above; the Powers, who think they're above the rest of the multiverse—which is where that name came from—; the Chaotics, who are…just horrible. They kind of went insane, and they see the multiverse as some sort of entertainment, going out of their way to create conflict in it. Finally, there's the Utopians, which is the Network I'm a part of!" he gave a proud grin at this. "We try to help every universe solve conflicts, sometimes before they even happen, and try to keep the peace."

"So…you guys go out into the multiverse and…_make_ a physical form I'm guessing? How does that work?"

"Yeah, we do kind of—well, I didn't—but the Utopians that are experienced Explorers usually take elements from that universe and change them around a little. I don't really know how it works; Tutor says he'll teach me when I'm ready."

"If you didn't make a physical form…how are you a Night Fury? Because that doesn't exist in this universe outside of fiction, and that seems like way too small of an 'element' to take from this universe."

"I don't know, I didn't really…think when I…came…here…" his voice trailed off embarrassedly, and he stared at the ground.

I slumped my shoulders, feeling confused and a little frustrated.

"Why _did_ you come here?"

"I…just wanted to get out and see the multiverse for myself. Tutor would only let me be an Observer and even then, it was only for small amounts of time. I only managed to spot one potential conflict that the Explorers could go out and take a closer look at. I just felt like I could do more…so I came here."

"If you travelled here, can't you get back?"

"If I could, do you think I'd still be here?" he looked up at me sorrowfully. "I came here expecting it to be amazing, and beautiful, and it _is_, but I nearly died! When I arrived, _everything_ hurt because I'd never had a physical form before, and then I scared you off and would have frozen to death if you hadn't come back for me! My body keeps doing things on its own, I have to remember to eat and drink or I'll die that way, I can't even get my own food, everything is so new and scary and I just…I just want to go home," he whimpered, earfins pinned against the back of his head and eyes squeezed shut.

"Just some of the fun parts of existing," I sighed and leaned back against the verge.

'_Y'know, I don't think that's helping'_ my inner voice snarked.

"So…is there any way you can send up a signal or something, to tell the 'entities' where you are?" I asked hopefully.

"No…but Tutor will find me. I know he will," his expression slowly morphed to one of determination. "He can figure out what I did, and where I went."

"This…Tutor guy, is he actually named _Tutor_, or is he tutoring you, how does that work?" I queried, hoping to take his mind off things.

"We don't really use names in the Above, since we can recognize each other by our thoughts, but we do use titles. Tutor has been teaching me everything I know."

"Do you…mind if I give you a name? I came up with it when I was at work, and it's kind of stuck in my head now," I laughed awkwardly.

"Okay! What is it?" he perked back up inquisitively.

"Ashburn. It's both a human name and a dragon one, since— " I was cut off as he leapt forward and nuzzled my face and neck, his tail wagging like a dog's.

"Augh! Alright, alright, stop," I pushed him back, both weirded out at the sudden affection and internally relieved he was back to normal. Well, as normal as he could be anyway. He had begun jumping around the campsite happily, chanting his new name. It made me wonder, how old really was he? He'd told me they experience time in the Above, so there was a good chance they kept track of it like we did on Earth.

"Hey Ashburn," I called, drawing his attention.

"Yeah?" it seemed to take him a moment to remember that word meant _him_ now, even though he'd just been repeating it to himself over and over.

"How old are you?"

"What do you mean?" he tilted his head in confusion.

"Like…here on Earth, we measure how old we are by years. It's been around a full day since we first met, seven days makes a week, fifty-two weeks makes a year," I explained. "So, do you know roughly how many years you've been alive for?"

"Um…we don't measure it in time like that. It depends on how much knowledge and experience your mind holds, and how much you've contributed to the Library. I think I'd be like…four weeks in your units? I'm not really sure, I've never thought of it before. I know I'm really young compared to most of the other entities though."

I sat there in shock for several seconds.

Four_ weeks_?!

"Hey are you feeling alright?" he nudged my arm.

"…Yup. Just…absorbing…that…" I replied faintly, subconsciously rubbing his snout before I realized what I was doing and quickly withdrew my arm.

"So how old are _you_ then?"

"…Almost nineteen years."

"Oh."

"That makes me…let's see, thirteen times nineteen…thirteen times twenty minus thirteen…almost two hundred and forty-seven times your age," I gave him a look.

"_Oh._"

We stood there in silence for a moment, until I suddenly remembered what he'd said earlier.

"Wait, what's this 'Library'?"

"It's a collection of all the knowledge we have on the multiverse," he answered promptly, clearly as relieved as I was to be past the subject of age. "Any time we're outside the Above, we're collecting information on the universe we're in, which gets related and linked to all sorts of other things, helping us all understand everything better. Like…I didn't know what those hard, flattened lines through the forest were, until I checked for similar references in the Library, and found they were called paths, trails or tracks. I realized really quickly when I first got here that this is a forest, and those are trees, because we already have records of them existing in several of the other universes that we've visited. But the multiverse is so vast and so different, more often than not we have no idea what most things in a universe are, and we need help identifying them. Like…what's that thing you use to go fast on the paths?" he pointed with a claw to my bike.

"That's a bicycle," I answered.

"Right, so now if any other entity is in a universe where those exist in some form, or there's something similar in nature, they'll be able to figure out what it is."

"Wow…that sounds really damn helpful. Like a hive-mind of dictionaries."

"Yeah, it is! We also have near perfect memory, so we can refer to any conversations or experiences we need to."

"Huh…so years from now you'll be able to remember every word of this?"

"Yep!"

I didn't share his cheerful attitude about that fact, it was slightly disturbing to my mind. Then again, at least I'd be able to make a lasting impression on a race of alien creatures without much difficulty. Then, for the second time that day, I realized what he'd said only seconds earlier.

"There's forests and trees in lots of other universes? Like, enough that you recognized them?"

"Well, yeah. A universe is created whenever anyone so much as thinks of a possible reality, that's why it's so vast. So, it makes sense that there's some common elements spread across them."

"I'm sorry, _what?!_" I nearly shouted in surprise.

"I…thought you said you knew about the multiverse?" he seemed a little apprehensive at my reaction.

"I…thought I did…" I stared up at the sky with wide eyes, imagining the possibilities. And then realized that in doing so, I was _creating a universe_. "Oh my god, nope, nope, that's just too weird," I tried desperately to keep my mind blank.

This proved almost immediately impossible.

"How did humans think the multiverse worked then?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"We uh…we just thought it was infinite. Like, every possible variant of every possible thing already existed, somewhere out there. Not…_this_."

"Well I suppose it might end up that way eventually. I know there's probably multiple universes that just happen to be exactly the same, but at some point, everything has to be thought of. And there's a load of void universes as well, where almost nothing was created. Oh, that's one of the things the Powers are trying to figure out—if universes are created by thought, then there must be a prime universe where all thought began, before there were any others," Ashburn continued to ramble on to himself as I sat there, trying to wrap my head around…any of it. This had escalated far too quickly for my brain to cope—I'd gone from discovering aliens, to discovering the nature of the entire multiverse in a matter of minutes.

I rubbed my face with my hands, trying to get my brain away from all of it. I would go insane trying to wrap my head around this, so it was best to just move on to more pressing matters.

"Ugh…alright, look, I'm thinking we should move further away from Keswick—the town where I live—so nobody else sees you and reports it to the police or something," I regretted saying this instantly as I saw his face drop from excitement to sadness. "I'm sorry, it's just…I have no idea what they'll do, and…I don't want you to get hurt."

Finding out he was essentially an infant put a new, quite worrying spin on things. He'd already seemed quite vulnerable from his lack of knowledge on this world and experience in using a physical body, but now…

"It's okay, I get it," he made an effort to put on a neutral expression, but I could still see the pain in his eyes. "This form isn't from your world is it?"

"No, well, kind of. It's from a piece of fiction, but the chances of someone coming along who recognizes it are…well not that low I guess, since I did, but…they're pretty slim. Especially if they happened to see you as aggressive."

"Would you…have come back and saved me if you hadn't…recognized this form?" Ashburn asked carefully, staring me down with large, emotional eyes.

"I…" my throat tightened. "Maybe. I don't know."

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, and I fidgeted with the buttons on my jumper before slinging my rucksack over my shoulders once more and climbing back up the grassy verge to my bike.

"Look," I said eventually, breaking the tension. "The place we're headed has a large lake, so you'll be able to learn how to swim and fish there. I'm also thinking that at some point you're going to want to learn how to fly, and I figure knowing how to use your wings and tail in the water first is a good place to start."

"Fly?" his earfins stood to attention again, and he looked back at his wings as if he'd forgotten they were there. "Oh! I want to show you something, wait here!"

He bounced up to the path and along it for a stretch, turning back around when he was around fifty metres away. He then began sprinting back down it, towards me and the river's edge. He was nearly on top of me in seconds. I could see how much force he had behind those legs as he rocketed past, and I ducked instinctively.

I realized what he was going to do only half a second before he did it.

I took in a sharp breath and resisted the urge to shout out, knowing it might make him stumble if I did.

He launched from the shore, spreading his wings and gliding wobblily across the river before nearly crash-landing on the other side, stumbling a couple of times but keeping upright. He then turned to me with a massive grin on his face.

"Well that's…new" I said faintly. For a moment, I had genuinely thought he was going to end up drowning himself, and I'd almost panicked. My voice barely carried over the sound of flowing water, but his sensitive ears picked it up anyway.

"It's awesome! Does flying always feel like that?"

"I wouldn't know, humans don't exactly have wings," I called back. "Don't do that again though, you might hurt yourself, or fall in the river!"

He had the decency to look at least a little sheepish.

"Just…meet me downriver by the bridge, and then we'll head to the lake from there."


	4. Chapter 4 - What Follows

**Chapter 4 – What Follows**

After meeting Aiden—and realizing I never asked for his name—we travelled through the forest for what seemed like a fairly long time. He was really slow on his bike compared to me, so I started running ahead, around and back in loops to see if there was anything interesting.

There wasn't.

Worst of all, as we got further and further away from the town Aiden had called 'Keswick', the paths got more and more awkward to navigate. At least for him on his bike anyway—I was absolutely fine. Now that I'd had a lot more practice with using my legs, I was confident moving about on rough terrain, because my muscles seemed to know exactly what to do all by themselves.

"Come oonn…" I whined, standing atop the fallen tree Aiden was trying to pull his bike over. He seemed to have enough trouble climbing over obstacles like this with his huge rucksack of stuff, but his bicycle was even bigger, and probably heavier too. "Why do you even take all this with you if it slows you down?"

"Well I can't just leave my bike out somewhere—it'll rust and somebody might take it," he grunted as he shoved it over the crest of the tree trunk, and it fell to the other side with a thud.

"Fine," I huffed and followed him off.

"And this rucksack is my _life_—you'd be dead without it. Everything in here has a purpose and a use when I'm out and about, which is like…ninety percent of the time. It means I can leave society behind and wander."

"Why would you want to be away from other people?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"Why _wouldn't_ I?" he muttered darkly, and I was taken aback.

"Don't you…like…being with them?"

"Almost everyone I've met either doesn't understand me, or embarrasses me somehow, or just straight-up pisses me off!" he exploded, throwing one of his arms up the air. "Nobody gets why I go camping for days at a time, no-one sees the _clear_ signs that I'm awkward in public, and just when I think someone _might_ actually understand, it turns out they're some self-obsessed prick, or greedy, or enjoy bullying other people just because they _can!_"

I cringed and pulled my earfins against my head.

"There's only so much of that you can go through before you stop trying to deal with shitty people and just leave. Humanity just takes and takes, and when we run out of things to take, we start destroying everything instead. The few people that are actually _nice_ and trying to do their best to help get left in the dust, so you know what, _fuck_ humanity—I don't want to be a part of it!"

He was breathing heavily and stared at the ground as he continued pushing his bike through the undergrowth.

"That's why I stay away from everyone. It's just best if I'm alone," he kicked at a fallen branch bitterly.

I looked on in deep sympathy and fell behind a little, absorbing everything he'd said. This wasn't the same sadness I'd felt in him when I was looking in from the Above, but it was clearly a huge issue. I had no idea what could have happened to cause so much hatred and pain for his own species, but I'd come here to help, and that's what I was going to do. I sped up again and fell in beside him with renewed determination.

"Well tough, because I'm not going to let you _be_ alone," I said, a little jokingly. It worked though, and Aiden snorted a laugh, breaking the tension.

"Thanks," he gave me a small smile and my heart leaped in glee. Yes! This was solid proof that I _could_ help people, no matter what Tutor said. I didn't need knowledge or experience, just the want to do the right thing!

I leaned forward and happily rubbed my head against his side, expressing my joy. Aiden didn't seem to share it though, as he stepped away, almost falling over his bike in the process, casting his eyes down again.

I felt a little rejected by that. I'd only just found out about the wonders of physical contact; after coming from a place where thoughts could be sent and heard much faster than actually talking, learning about body language from the Library was a blessing. I could give a gentle nuzzle instead of simply saying 'I'm happy', but Aiden seemed very closed off about it. He'd mentioned being awkward…maybe this was something human I didn't understand yet.

Just another mystery I would need to solve while I was here. I needed to be careful though, I didn't want to upset him—he clearly liked me enough to have me along, and I didn't want to jeopardize that, especially after everything he'd just told me about.

"So how much further are we going?" I asked, in an attempt at distraction.

"It's about…an hour's walk from here."

"UUUUGGHHHH," my chin hit the dirt as I allowed my legs to fold beneath me at the thought of having to go all that way at the pace he was walking.

"If you're bored, why don't you just run ahead like you were doing before?" he gave me a bemused glance.

"Because there's _nothing_," I pushed myself back up, plodding slooowwwly alongside him. "It's just trees, bushes, more trees and the occasional rock."

"Well you'll like where we're going then. The forest ends at the edge of a lake, and there's a fantastic view of the mountains on the other side of the glen."

"Mountains? Like, big ones?"

"Well…yeah. They're _mountains_," he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I've never seen them up close before…" I gazed into the distance, as if I could somehow see them through the treetops.

"I thought you 'looked down on the multiverse' and all? If forests exist in other universes, mountains should too, right?"

"We don't…_see_ things from the Above, not like physical sight. We can feel the emotions minds have, and their connections to each other, sort of like our own Networks and Connections. The only time we actually see the multiverse is if we go there ourselves, or when another entity that's been there shares their memories to the Library. The only mountains I've seen were in some of those memories, and they were really far away."

"Well, you're in for a treat then."

That settled it—I was not going to put up with his walking speed if that was what awaited me at the end of it.

I narrowed my eyes as Aiden tried to push his bike between two particularly large boulders, and when it wouldn't fit, had to push it up on top of them before climbing up himself. I saw my opportunity and leaped up before he could, and grabbed one of the central metal bars between my teeth before jumping off the other side.

"Hey!" Aiden exclaimed, struggling across the rocks after me. "Give that back!"

"Mopf!"

Talking, as it turns out, is not quite as easy with your mouth full of bike. I danced backward as he advanced towards me, trying to make a grab for it.

"Ashburn, what are you doing?" he asked exasperatedly.

I turned and started trotting away from him, glancing over my shoulder and almost falling over as the front part of the bicycle twisted and poked me in the eye. I kept that eyelid firmly closed and resolutely kept moving—if I could get him to chase me, we'd get there a lot faster.

"Drop that, or I'm not moving."

I looked back again to see him standing with his arms folded, glaring at me. Drat, he'd caught on to my plan. I met his gaze for a moment.

And then I started running.

"OY!" I grinned past the metal in my mouth as I heard his feet hitting the ground behind me—a lake next to some mountains where the trees ended? I could find that, easy.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

Three miles and a lot of sweat later, I collapsed on the grass feeling half-dead with my legs and back burning.

"I…hate…you…" I wheezed, and the stupid dragon actually had the audacity to _laugh_ at me.

He had kept stopping any time I fell behind, and then would disappear again when I got close, taunting me and staying just out of reach. Now he'd put down my bike, and finally got to see that view he'd so desperately been after.

I watched as his jaw dropped and I actually saw his pupils widen as he took in the sight in front of him. The trees around the edges of the lake were sparse, but the spot on the other side where they cleared led his eyeline up past the heather and gorse bushes, to rocks and scree on the more jagged edges of the mountain, and even higher where small patches of snow could be seen near the tops, shining in the afternoon sun and surrounded by wispy clouds.

I discarded my rucksack and lay down in a more comfortable position to relax, closing my eyes and soaking in the warmth of the day, silently thanking the weather for not conforming to the seasons. The leaves on the trees were a strong shade of orange by this point, but by some miracle it'd been dry and sunny for the last few days.

Ashburn had fallen onto his haunches and was still staring at the mountains in complete wonder, so I took the time to chill as he gawked at the scenery. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew I felt a nudge in my side and opened my eyes to find Ashburn staring down at me.

"So, when are you gonna teach me how to swim?"

"Uh…now I guess," I pushed myself up and glanced around. I'd probably not been asleep for very long, the sun looked like it would be up for another hour and a half at least. "Easiest way to do this is if I go in with you, I fancy a dip anyway."

I rummaged around in my rucksack and had to take several things out before finally finding my towel buried somewhere near the bottom. I then began stripping down to my boxers, and halfway through realized Ashburn was just watching me.

"Please tell me you have the concept of modesty in that Library of yours."

"Oh! Oh, yeah we do."

"Okay, good, because that's not a conversation I ever wanted to have with you," I laughed and my teeth chattered a little as the breeze hit bare skin. I walked over to the edge of the lake and dipped my foot in, drawing a quick breath at the temperature. "Damn, that's cold. Are you sure you're gonna be alri—"

Ashburn happily splashed into the water until he was knee deep and I yelped as I was showered with freezing cold droplets.

"It's fine!" he chirped.

"Seriously? You got hypothermia from the river, but you're not cold here? How does that even…" I had to remind myself that I was dealing with a dragon that wasn't even a proper dragon—the rules of _normal_ didn't apply anymore. "Alright just…if you start shivering, or feeling drowsy, get out _immediately_ okay?"

"You're shivering already," he pointed out.

"Yeah, that's because I need to get used to the temperature. I don't know how your body works, so your safety is going to be up to your own judgement. Just…be careful," I slowly waded in until the water was most of the way up my legs, teeth chattering the whole way. He, meanwhile, was joyously bounding deeper and deeper into the lake. "Don't go further than your legs can reach! I need to teach you how to actually float first!"

He looked back at me, sticking out his tongue "When did you get so protective?"

"I didn't…I'm not— " I spluttered.

"Yeah you aaare. Watch, I'll prove it!"

He then proceeded to leap towards the deeper waters, and his body immediately vanished beneath the surface.

He didn't come back up.

"Ashburn!" I shouted, frantically trying to push my legs through the shallows and meeting heavy resistance. When he didn't come up for several seconds I swore and dove forward, barely recognizing the shock of cold water engulfing my torso and arms. I began the front crawl, feeling brain freeze set in as my head briefly fell below the surface, taking desperate breaths.

When I came within a few feet of where he'd disappeared, he suddenly exploded back up, laughing like it was the funniest joke in the world. Now that I was closer, I could see that his paws were still on the lakebed, and he'd crouched underneath the surface to trick me.

"Ha, see? You totally panicked!"

"What? This isn't—"

He ducked his snout underwater and blew out through his nose, going cross-eyed as he watched the bubbles rise to the surface.

"Fuck's _sake_, this is not _funny!_" I slapped the side of his head, _hard_. "You could have died!"

He recoiled, staring at me in fear and shock, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes. I was breathing heavily, still recovering from the shock of cold water, but I couldn't stay angry at him—he looked like he was about to cry.

"Sorry…I shouldn't have hit you. That probably hurt a lot more than I meant it to…since you're not used to pain and…you just _really_ scared me. Don't do that. Please," my throat choked up as thoughts of what could have happened flashed through my head—him losing his footing, panicking and taking in water, unable to lift his head above the surface to get air…I shuddered, and it had nothing to do with the cold.

Neither of us said anything for several awkward seconds, both trying desperately not to make eye contact.

"…Sorry," Ashburn finally mumbled, sniffling a little.

"It's fine," The relaxed atmosphere we'd had only moments before was completely shattered. I took a steadying breath and closed my eyes for a moment, trying to douse my anxiety and relieve the tension. My mind drifted back to the swimming lessons I had when in primary school, how my mother had nearly leapt into the pool when I'd been struggling without water wings for the first time. Surely there was no I way I was _that_ bad…

I shook my head and tried to get back to the matter at hand—a good distraction was what we both needed right now.

"Alright…the first thing you need to learn is how to tread water, so you can keep your head above the surface when the water's too deep to keep a foothold. Basically, it's just keeping your limbs all moving about in circles and pushing down against the water," I demonstrated by swimming out to the deeper parts of the lake and showing him the motions. He had turned to watch, but didn't seem particularly sure of himself after that ordeal.

"Now you come out here and try it," I gestured for him to move closer, where his paws wouldn't be able to touch the bottom.

"But…you said it was dangerous," he was staring into the depths with some measure of unease, and I worried I might have scared him off the idea of it entirely.

"I…was being a bit ridiculous," I admitted. "It's only really dangerous if you have no idea what you're doing, and there are strong currents. If you don't feel confident just try taking your paws off the bottom where you are, and tread water where you know you can keep your head in the air."

He hesitantly moved a little closer to me and moved one of his front and back paws up, balancing on his two others. As soon as he took them off the lakebed though, he panicked and flailed, falling under the surface, completely unprepared for the sensation of floating. He quickly got his legs back under himself and came back up spluttering and choking, eyes watering.

"Are you alright?" I asked concernedly, drifting closer. He was hacking and coughing, desperately trying to clear his throat, and I realized that he'd probably never had his own body fighting against him before, blocking his breathing.

"…I don't think I want to do this anymore," he said quietly.

"Hey, don't give up on me just yet," I replied softly, swimming over to him. "I've got one more idea that might work, we can take it slowly, and I'll be right here, okay?"

He swallowed, meeting my gaze with soulful, scared, but trusting eyes.

"…Okay."

I really hoped this worked, for his sake.

"Alright, try spreading your wings and let them sit on the surface, along with the smaller ones behind them, and keep your tail level with the water," he did so, nervously unfolding his wings. "…That's it. I'm going to stand next to you and hold your head up the best I can, and I'll keep my feet on the bottom," I placed my hands on either side of his jaw. "Now you move each of your paws, one by one, when you're ready."

I held his stare, meeting him with a small smile.

"You can do this."

He took a few seconds to slow his breathing, and then nodded. He removed the first paw from the lakebed.

Then a second.

He teetered a little and I gave him a reassuring squeeze.

Moments later, the third was gone too.

"I…I think it's working!" I felt a huge smile stretch across my face as the excitement returned to his voice.

And just like that, he was floating.

"I'm doing it! I'm actually doing it!" my heart melted at the expression of absolute joy that grew on his muzzle, eyes shining. "Thankyou thankyou thankyou!" He pressed his head into my arms, closing his eyes and cooing. I allowed it for a few seconds, relieved and happy for him, before moving back and releasing my hold, kicking into deeper waters again.

"Now move your paws forward in circles and move your tail up and down," I instructed, figuring his tail fins and tail wings would act like flippers. I demonstrated the doggy paddle motions to him and he copied it, beginning to slowly move towards me. Then he started flicking his tail up and down and quickly increased his speed. I swam to the side and avoided his torso without much difficulty, but there was no way I would be able to get around his huge wingspan. I settled for diving underneath as Ashburn's form briefly blocked out the sun, and despite my efforts, got whacked by his tail on the way up anyway.

I probably deserved it for earlier.

He figured out turning on his own and continued zooming around the lake with his wings out for several minutes. I watched him as I floated lazily around, able to enjoy the cool sensation of the water now that my body had lowered in temperature. Eventually he got bored of that though, and swam back over to me.

"So, what's next? How do I catch fish like this?" he asked enthusiastically.

"Well…you could try holding your breath for as long as you can," I suggested. "That way you'll know how long you can stay underwater for, and it'll stop you from panicking."

With that he took a deep breath, puffing out his cheeks a little (which I didn't even know was possible with his mouth shape), sat down in the water, and waited.

…And waited.

…And _waited_.

After at least a minute and a half of us both just drifting about and making faces at each other, I began to get a little worried.

"Are you good? You don't feel a sort of…tightness in your chest?"

He shook his head.

Time dragged on.

"Right well…I think we can safely say you'll be just fine underwater," I gave a nervous laugh. He continued holding his breath though, clearly wanting to see how long he could go for. I'll admit, I was curious myself, but I'd not expected it to be for _this_ long. Bigger body, bigger lungs, I supposed.

After maybe three minutes more he finally gasped a breath, breaking the silence that'd fallen over the lake.

"Was that good?" he panted.

"Considering it was a hell of a lot longer than I'll ever be able to hold my breath for, yeah I'd say it was pretty good," I chuckled. "So long as you don't freak out and breathe in water, you should be able to dive and figure it out on your own with no problems."

"Aren't you going to teach me?" he sounded disappointed.

"I…really don't have much of a clue past the basics. Your body is completely different to mine, and the vast majority of swimming comes down to experience honestly. I think I need to get out and dry off too—I'm starting to feel the cold."

"Awww…but I don't feel shivery or anything!" he looked at me with pleading eyes.

"Then you can stay in and keep practicing—there's nothing stopping you is there?"

He opened his mouth to say something, closed it, and glanced between me and the lake in indecision. I started wading back to shore, figuring his eagerness to learn would push him to keep swimming until the sun went down. So I was surprised when I heard him come splashing up behind me, but didn't give any sign that I'd noticed.

A shard of regret and shame stabbed my chest—that was definitely my fault. I'd scared him so much that he wouldn't go in alone.

I tried to forget about it as I started drying myself off, while Ashburn simply shook all the water off his scales. Thankfully he had the common sense to do it further away from where I was towelling myself down.

I moved behind some trees to get changed back into dry clothes, but I'd need a campfire to get the seeping cold out of my skin. I returned to the campsite with an armful of twigs and was startled to find Ashburn had already collected some firewood while I was busy.

"You didn't need to do that," I said, dropping my load onto his considerably larger pile.

'_You didn't need to make me feel even worse,'_ I added internally.

"We both need the fire, so I should help," he said matter-of-factly. "It's gonna take me ages to get the taste of wood out of my mouth though," he smacked his lips a few times, pulling a grossed-out face.

"So, you actually feel cold? Now that you're _out_ of the water?"

"I don't know how it works! I've only had this body for like a day and a half, I figured you'd know," we both settled around the pyramid shape I was building out of the wood, surrounded by stones to stop the grass catching fire.

"Well the sun is going down now…maybe that has something to do with it," I made a mental note to do some research into cold-blooded animals – they must be similar on some level. He watched with interest as I spun a pointed stick rapidly between my palms, one end touching the kindling. I blew gentle, focused breaths onto it as the friction began to generate heat and a little smoke, before blossoming into a tiny flame.

"Woah! I've never seen that before!" Ashburn's face was right up close to the fire, watching it slowly consume the smaller pieces of wood before growing and spreading.

"Well I'd use matches to start it much quicker if the firewood was wet, or if we desperately needed the warmth, but it's good practice when the weather's dry."

"Matches?"

"Yeah, these things," I pulled out a box from my rucksack, taking one from the little card drawer to show him. "You flick them against the side here, and they ignite."

"So why don't you use them all the time if they're so easy?"

"Because I might need them for emergencies or something. Like when you were, y'know, dying last night."

"Oh…" he laid his head on the grass and stared out at the mountains.

'_God, you're just brilliant at this. You were having a perfectly normal conversation, and then you just go and bring up last night like a complete twat!'_

"Sorry," I sighed, adding some more sticks to the fire.

The shard dug deeper.

The uncomfortable silence was finally broken when a helicopter flew overhead, and of course Ashburn wanted to know what it was. This led to questions about Earth, humans, and a million and one different tangents.

The downside of talking to someone who has a near-perfect memory is that they will pick up on _every_ unexplained detail. The more answers I gave, the more questions he had, and I eventually had to ask him to stop so I could go and relieve my bladder.

On my way back, I noticed something strange in the waning daylight. On the opposite shore of the lake, barely visible against the trees, was a person. They weren't moving, they didn't have any sources of light with them, they were just…staring. The creepiest part though, was the fact that I couldn't see any physical features or clothes. Just…black.

An unsettling feeling of dread formed in my stomach.

"Ashburn…" I half-called towards him, still a few dozen feet away from the campfire. "Can you see that?"

He looked at me, then over towards the silhouette on the bank.

"Uh…yeah. Is that maybe the woman from before?"

"I don't think so…"

Something felt _very_ wrong.

All of a sudden, I had a strong urge to run. The fading sunlight seemed to stretch the space out, the hopeful light of the fire dimming as if the shadows from the forest would swallow me. My skin prickled with a thousand imaginary insects but I wouldn't dare move a muscle, lest it trigger movement from the shadowy figure.

I held my breath.

The only sounds I could hear were the thumping of my heart and the small splashes of waves on the water's surface.

"Hey!" Ashburn shouted, and I flinched at the sudden noise.

Instantly my vision was filled with black, the silhouette appearing only inches from my face and causing me to stumble back as it advanced, seeming to grow into the corners of my eyes until I could only see absolute nothingness. I fell onto the ground, the breath knocked out of me, and tried to scramble back, squeezing my eyes shut as the very presence of the thing seeped through my skull, invading my mind, breeding fear and panic.

"_HELP!_" the scream ripped free of my throat as I tried to curl into myself as tightly as possible. The worst part was that it wasn't even making any noise; my frantic thoughts were the only things running through my mind as they were distorted by shadow and pain. Nightmarish images flashed behind my eyelids, fuelling my own fear in an ever-increasing loop of terror.

I cried out again and again, my shouts slowly devolving into meaningless whimpers. Without even so much as touching me, this _thing_ had reduced me to a trembling scrap of a thinking being, forced to live in perpetual darkness with only my own horrific thoughts for company.

After what seemed like an eternity in my abyssal prison, the stream of fear and paranoia began to end. Slowly but surely, the real world began to leak back in, until I registered something touching my face. My eyes flew open and I was treated to one last burst of adrenaline as my vison was filled with darkness once more, and the silhouette manifested before me, before I realized they were scales.

Ashburn had wrapped himself around my shaking form, a wing pulled across as if to shield me from the world. My head was pressed into his shoulder, and I pulled back, taking deep gasping breaths as I slowly readjusted to the environment. I met his eyes, still panicky and trembling as he folded his wing back to his side.

"Aiden! Aiden are you okay?" he tried to nuzzle my face but I jerked back at the invasion of personal space, an afterimage on my eyes of the silhouette doing exactly the same. I tried to stand only to find my wobbly legs barely able to hold my weight, and I tripped backwards over his tail.

"Stop!" I shouted as he made to move towards me again. He froze with one paw in the air, in the middle of standing up. "Just…I need…I _need_…" My eyes darted back and forth before landing on the campfire flickering a short distance away, my rucksack lying next to it.

I staggered to my feet and tried not to fall over as my limbs disobeyed my every thought. My throat and eyes stung, and I felt like I could be sick at any moment.

No, wait a minute, this was all too familiar to me. I was just having an anxiety attack, and I knew how to deal with those.

I took a deep breath in for three seconds, and let out for five.

In…out…

I tried to focus on my surroundings; what was I doing?

I needed to get back to my things, and keep the campfire going, or it would run out of fuel.

I continued my breathing exercise and pushed onward, lifting my feet off the ground and straightening my back. Before I knew it, I was collapsing next to my rucksack, hands clasped tightly around the shoulder straps as if it would try to escape. I was still shaky and a little nauseous, but it would fade with time—I just needed to relax.

I sat myself upright and put some more wood on the fire as Ashburn tentatively padded over and lay down across from me, staring through the flames. Neither of us said anything for several minutes as I slowly released all the tension in my body, goosebumps rising from the warmth of the campfire.

"Okay…what the _hell_ was _that_?" I finally asked.

"I have no idea," he shook his head. "I wondered if it might be something from your world but…"

"That thing was not human, and it sure as fuck wasn't any animal I've ever seen. It was like…a living shadow or silhouette, or something."

"Could it…be from another planet in this universe?"

"That would be a ridiculous coincidence if it was," I snorted. "No, it showed up a day after you did. It must be some kind of multiverse crap." I looked out over the lake again, at where it had first appeared. Night had covered the area by this point, which meant I could barely see anything beyond the reach of our firelight.

If the silhouette _was_ completely black, then there was no way we'd see it coming until it was on top of us. I glanced back at the trees surrounding the area. Theoretically, it could be anywhere right now, and we'd never know. Waiting.

The drumming of my heart began to speed up and I tried to focus back on the fire, grabbing my rucksack with one hand again. I noticed Ashburn looking at me with something bordering between sympathy and pity, and felt a small spark of anger.

"What?" I growled.

"Why won't you let me help you?" he asked quietly. The small frown, the crease of his brows; all they did was infuriate me.

"Because I don't _want_ help," I scowled, rolling out my sleeping mat and bag on the grass. "I just…" my throat choked up, and I looked down. "A l-lot's happened and…I don't know what to think anymore," I stuttered out, cheeks burning with shame.

I tried to hide in my sleeping bag, turning my back to the fire. "Just leave me alone."

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

I sighed as Aiden shifted so he was facing out to the forest.

"Okay," I replied softly. I rolled onto my side a little, paws resting on top of each other and closed my eyes. I left my wing half-open, the end resting against the ground and intentionally leaving a space in front of my chest.

Aiden clearly wasn't going to accept any help from me, even if he sorely needed it, and he definitely wasn't going to be able to sleep alone after what he'd just been through. I didn't know what that thing did to him, but seeing him so frail and scared with it looming over his shaking body had _changed_ something within me.

I'd come here with the purpose of simply resolving whatever issues he'd been having, to prove to myself that I could do more than what Tutor told me. But now I wanted to do more, _be_ more. I didn't know what exactly that meant, or what it would lead to, but I was going to find out.

I slowed my breathing and was careful not to move as I lay in wait.

Sure enough, after a little while I heard Aiden shifting about, and I had to force my earfins from twitching as his footsteps drew close. I tried to stay as limp as possible as I felt him crawl up beside me, and underneath my waiting embrace. I let him get comfortable as his breathing gradually slowed, and I allowed my wing to rest on him like a blanket. When I was sure he was asleep I put my paw on his shoulder and gently pulled him a little closer, curling my tail around us both.

The silhouette would not haunt his mind tonight.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

**Author's Note**

Well now wasn't that an emotional rollercoaster! I did say this chapter would be longer than the last, and it turned out double the length, though I didn't actually plan for half of the stuff that happened this chapter so…I might need to do some editing of my plans.

On another note, I recently saw some people saying they don't leave reviews because they don't know what to say that will be of any value. As an author I can tell you that I will hugely appreciate ANY review, even if it's just a couple of words. But if you don't know what to say, here's some questions for you: what are your theories about the plot so far? Any particular quotes you liked? What did you think of my first attempt at horror-ish writing? And, do you think my writing has improved this chapter compared to earlier ones? I've tried to use more show-don't-tell methods here, metaphors and the like, so I hope it came through.

Thank you again to my betas Layla and netWARIOR for putting up with my nagging, and thank YOU for reading!

Rowan


	5. Chapter 5 - Responsibility

**Author's Note**

So uh…that was probably the shortest hiatus in fanfiction history right? XD I've been around long enough to know that those are usually either a death knell for the story, or mean the author's going to leave the story for at least a few months…or years. But somehow, I managed to write for three days straight, around 1,500 words each day. Out of nowhere. And yes, that does mean this chapter is over 9,000 words long, so you'd BETTER ENJOY IT :D

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

**Chapter 5 – Responsibility**

I woke slowly, the warmth from the sun hitting my body all over and fighting off the chilly air. I was going to roll over to stretch both my wings when I remembered just in time that Aiden was still with me, clutched to my chest by paw and tail. I instantly stopped moving, not wanting to wake him up—I got the feeling it took a lot of courage for him to come to me last night, and he'd be extremely embarrassed if he woke right next to me.

I gently set him back on the grass, and to my complete elation, he tried to cling to me a little in his sleep, an arm weakly flailing at my shoulder. A huge smile broke out across my face, and I tried not to coo as I tenderly nuzzled his cheek and stepped back.

I dragged his sleeping bag over next to him, hoping he might imagine sleeping with me in the first place. After everything that happened last night…we both needed to forget about it. We had no idea if that Silhouette thing was coming back, what it was trying to do, whether it even meant any harm…

We just needed a good distraction to get our minds away from it, because constantly worrying about it wouldn't help. And I intended to _be_ that distraction.

Once he woke up anyway.

I wandered in circles around our camp, watching the shrinking shade for signs of a shadowy silhouette. It could come back at any moment, without warning, so we had to keep an eye out…but at the same time, it might never show itself again.

Eventually, my stomach started rumbling—something I now knew meant that I needed food. I gazed out over the lake, knowing there would be fish galore hiding in it somewhere…but it didn't feel safe. Not without Aiden.

I started pacing back and forth, staring at the small waves lapping at the shore. Aiden had said 'it's only really dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, and there are strong currents'. There definitely wasn't a strong push or pull to the waves, and I knew how to get around since Aiden had taught me…_and_ I could hold my breath for a really long time.

I lifted a paw into the air hesitantly, then shifted forward and placed it in the water. It felt the same as yesterday—I could tell it was cold, but my body didn't _feel_ cold. I glanced back to where Aiden was sleeping, and then at the water again.

No, I didn't need to be scared. There was nothing to be scared of. No currents, I knew I could swim, and I wouldn't get cold.

All I needed to do was apply logic.

With this conclusion sound in my head, I walked confidently deeper, spreading out my wings and tail as the surface reached my shoulders. It only took me a moment to take my paws off the lake floor, and I was floating again.

'_See?'_ I told myself. _'No need to be frightened.'_

I started gliding along the water, flicking my tail for speed and keeping a close eye for movement in the depths. Each time I spotted something, I'd try to improve my diving and catch it. The results were…mixed.

The first time, I thrust my head and neck into the water and kicked with my legs, but didn't tuck in my wings, so I ended up going nowhere.

On the second attempt, I folded in my wings, pointed my tail upward and pushed with all my might. I managed to get underwater no problem, got close to a fish, but forgot to actually bite at it in my excitement.

The third try was my first success, though I swallowed a huge amount of lake water along with the fish. I didn't know fluid could _hurt_ going down my throat like that.

From there it was only a matter of refining my technique—smoothing out my movements so that I didn't disturb the water and scare off the fish, catching several at a time, coming up to the surface and emptying my mouth of water before eating them.

And then I realized I could flap my wings underwater to propel myself faster. _Much_ faster.

I was enjoying myself immensely, speeding around underwater, whizzing past all the seaweed and scaring the life out of the fish when a sudden thought made me come to a halt.

I hadn't checked on Aiden in well over an hour. The Silhouette might have come back.

I burst to the surface and glanced over at the campsite, a shudder of relief passing through me to see it unchanged, and Aiden still fast asleep. I needed to stop panicking like that—I was meant to be the distraction, even to myself.

Now that I thought about it, why was he still asleep? The sun was almost up past the treetops now. The day was well into its beginning…maybe I could wake him up with some breakfast?

I dived back underwater again, searching for an especially large fish. I found one that was as long as my mouth was wide and splashed back up to the surface with my catch.

Holding the tail of the fish in my mouth, I trotted back up the lakeshore to Aiden's sleeping form.

"I brought you some breakfast!" I called, slightly muffled through the fish tail. I flicked it upward and released my hold, intending for the fish to land next to him.

I might have thrown it slightly too high.

And it _might_ have landed on his face.

"AUGH WHAT THE F—"

He wasn't enjoying it as much as I hoped he would.

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

Aiden decided since I had fishing down, I needed to learn how to fly and hunt. What I very quickly learned though, is that flying is hard, and hunting is boring.

Every time I launched myself from the ground and tried to flap my wings, I simply fell back down in one way or another. With neither myself nor Aiden having a clue what to do, and the Library not being very helpful, we didn't make any progress. No matter what I did, I couldn't seem to figure out the exact motions, positions and movements each part of my body needed to fly properly. After a couple of hours of aches and bruises, I was ready to give up.

I flopped to the ground, the pulse of my heartbeat pounding throughout my sore form, and I gave a long groan.

"Alright, I have one last idea, and it won't involve you hitting the ground again," Aiden crouched next to my head.

"Won't, or shouldn't?" I moaned.

"Uh…a bit of both really. The idea is you climb that tree—" he pointed to one that had branches hanging over the water. "—and then jump and try to glide from there. See if you can gain a little altitude before you land in the water."

I sighed heavily before slowly pushing myself back up. I did want to fly, but…it _really_ hurt every time I fell. I plodded over to the base of the trunk and stared up at it, wondering how I was even supposed to get up there in the first place.

"Stick your claws into the wood," Aiden suggested, almost reading my mind. It made me yearn for the Above, to feel the Connections again, the instant transfer of knowledge and information, so much understanding…

'_Stop thinking about it'_ I scolded myself, shaking my head. Tutor would find me; I just knew it. So for now, I was going to _fly_ and I was going to _love_ it, Chaos be damned!

With renewed determination and strength, I lifted my front paws up as high as I could, balancing on my back two legs. I curled my claws into the surface of the bark, finding it quite easy to cut through, and tried to pull myself up a little. I placed my back paws against the wood and repeated the motion with my rear claws.

I continued to pull and push myself up, keeping my wings tucked in and my tail straight. Eventually, I reached one of the largest branches that stretched out over the lake and climbed on top of it. The further I moved along its length, the more it bent, until I could almost feel myself sliding down its strangely smooth surface, and had to dig my claws in again. The whole branch was arched steeply over due to my weight, but I was above the lake's surface now.

"So…" I looked down at Aiden. "Do I just…"

"Jump," he confirmed. "Glide over the water, then try flapping your wings."

I steadied myself, unfurling my wings and lowering myself in preparation. I launched upward and forward, intending to clear the thin end of the branch as quickly as possible. But as soon as my paws left the surface, all the tension caused by my weight made it come whipping back up, and it hit me straight in the face, neck and stomach. The immediate lash of pain caused me to lose all focus, and I could only let out a whimpering yelp as I fell down into the water.

I came up a few seconds later, spluttering and sniffling, and dragged myself to shore. I tried not to cry; my exhaustion, sore body and repeated failure driving their thorns into me.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry, I should've realized that was a willow tree and they're really bendy—" Aiden came running over to me as I slumped onto the soft grass.

"N-no m-more flying," I choked out.

"No more flying," he agreed, rubbing his hand over my head. I weakly tried to press into the contact, desperately wanting comfort after the whole ordeal, but quickly found myself passing out.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

"You feeling better?" I asked Ashburn as I noticed him waking up. I was in the middle of preparing my lunch—instant noodles, for the man of upper class. He stretched and came padding over to the fire I'd set up to cook with, lying down so his head was close to me.

"Yeah," he smiled and nosed my arm. I couldn't help the red that spread across my face at this, but whilst sitting down there wasn't exactly much I could do either. I did feel a little responsible for his fall from the tree earlier, but most of his scrapes were from his own determination to fly. I tried to sort through the jumble of emotions that were whizzing through my head, the urge to run away from everything like a stupid child briefly crossing my mind, before it was washed away by the more rational part of my brain. I eventually settled on giving his snout an awkward and brief scratch before trying to focus back on my food.

Inevitably, I started questioning my own stupidity after that ridiculous interaction, and as usual, I found no answer.

"Whatcha doing?" he watched as I broke clumps of dry noodles into the now boiling water, emptied the seasoning sachet over the top and began to stir.

"Cooking. Not exactly complicated cooking though," I laughed. I took a small sip from the pot to taste it, and yup, I'd put too much water in—the flavour was almost non-existent. I sighed and rummaged around in my rucksack for a moment, before pulling out two tiny jars.

"What are those?"

"Salt and pepper. Basically, they can make anything taste better. Here, take a sniff of this," I unscrewed the lid of the pepper jar and held it out to him. He seemed to take a couple of short hitching breaths as he sniffed it, his nose twitching, and I realized what was happening not a moment too soon. A rising shriek began to emanate from the back of his throat and his mouth began to glow with purple fire. I jumped up, diving away as he sneezed plasma into the cooking pot, sending boiling hot water and shredded bits of noodles across the camp.

I stayed on the ground for a few moments, arms covering my head, waiting for the dust—and foodstuffs—to settle. I cautiously raised my head, looking back at Ashburn to see him on his back, staring in shock at where his shot had detonated.

"Wha…what happened? I don't…" he glanced back and forth disbelievingly at the mild destruction he'd unwittingly caused. "Oh Chaos, are you hurt? What did I do?! I'm so sorry!" he rolled to his paws and ran over to me, despite my attempts to wave him off.

"I'm fine, I'm fine…kinda forgot you were a dragon for a bit there."

"You're telling me! What was that?!"

"Uh…you sneeze fire, I'm guessing."

"I _sneeze fire?!_" he was completely aghast at this revelation.

"Yup. Kinda ruined my meal plans," I looked down into the now empty pot.

Ashburn visibly winced. "Sorry…do you want another fish?"

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

"Can you at least _try_ to be a little quiet?" I sighed as Ashburn enthusiastically trampled through several bushes next to me.

"What for?"

"Because if you want to actually hunt something to eat, you need to sneak up on it first," I replied exasperatedly.

"Why?" he tilted his head.

"Because it'll run!" I half-shouted.

"So I'll run after it!" he grinned, pleased at his logic and completely oblivious to my frustration.

"You won't even get within sight range of anything that hears you coming, and you'll be left hungry."

"I'm not hungry anyway," he whined. "And I'm boooored."

"Oh my God…" I hung my head in defeat. "Alright, what do you want to do then?"

Ashburn glanced around and hummed, before looking back at me with a knowing smile.

I gave him a cautious sidelong gaze. "What?"

He slowly reached out with a paw and poked me in the chest with the rounded top of one of his claws.

"You're it."

Quick as a flash, he was gone, bouncing gleefully through the woods and glancing back at me every so often. Once he judged himself to be at a safe distance, he stopped and turned back fully to see my bemused face.

"Oh come on, you have to know this game, it's everywhere in the multiverse!" he came trotting back. "You're supposed to chase me!"

I could barely hear him, a hundred thoughts washing through my head, not least of which were the memories of playing with Sophie…a long time ago. God, I missed her so much…but I wasn't a kid anymore.

'_Why can't you just enjoy yourself?'_ my subconscious chimed in.

Because it was stupid! I couldn't just act like a little kid, running around without a care in the world, being clueless and immature!

'_Yes, but Ashburn's technically a little kid…'_

And?

'_Aaand by the unspoken rules of society, if you're with a kid, you can do kid stuff.'_

Well, shit. I couldn't fault that logic.

I was suddenly jerked out of my inner dialogue by said 'little kid' giving me a light head bump to the chest. "Is something wrong?"

I shook my head and blinked a few times, taking a breath.

"No, no, I just…thinking," I couldn't help but notice that Ashburn was now right in front of me, within easy reach.

I began to form a slightly evil smirk.

"What?" he took a half-step back, one paw in the air, giving me a cautious look just as I'd done only moments earlier.

Oh, how the tables had turned.

"You're it!" I shouted, tapping his nose and running for my life.

"Hey, that's not fair!" I heard his much heavier footfalls behind me, and tried to pour on the speed, knowing fine well he could catch me in seconds if he wanted to.

"Just returning the favour!" I laughed, my voice shaking with each impact of my feet. Bushes and bracken whipped past me, and I had to keep jumping over low-lying branches and rocks to make sure I didn't trip. My only consolation was that they would slow Ashburn down a little too, but not much.

I dived around a tree as I heard him get a little too close, feeling the gust of air as he narrowly missed a grab for my back. I couldn't help but let out a cackle at my small victory, and he emitted an excited trill at the near miss, digging his claws into the ground to cancel out his momentum before sprinting after me again. We were both completely lost in the thrill of the chase, exhilaration and adrenaline fuelling our bodies to push us further and faster (though this mostly applied to me, I don't think he even broke a sweat the entire time).

The fact that we both knew it was just for play made it all the better, and Ashburn was definitely holding back to make it more even. When he inevitably caught me with a tag to my arm, we both started backpedalling, trying to nullify our speed to turn and run in the other direction, but he was never more than a few metres ahead of me, dancing and dodging just as he'd done when he stole my bike.

This went back and forth for some time, though I couldn't tell for how long. At some point when he was 'it', I lost track of him whilst running. I began to slow down, turning three hundred and sixty degrees to see if I could catch a glimpse of where he'd gone. My exhaustion quickly caught up to me once I stopped moving, and I was left heaving for air, sweat dripping over my entire body.

Silence fell over the forest as I tried to recover from some of the most intense exercise I'd had in months. I was almost considering sitting down on a nice mossy boulder to rest when a low growl split the air. I looked frantically around for the source, a shiver running down my spine. Or maybe that was sweat.

In all the green, black scales should have stuck out like a sore thumb, but I couldn't see so much as a particularly dark shadow.

This wasn't a chase any more—it was a hunt, and I was the prey.

Part of me was a little proud he'd actually listened to what I was saying earlier; every other part was freaking out. What if he'd somehow turned feral? Had the adrenaline activated some kind of primal instinct? Surely not…he wasn't really a dragon, not in mind anyway. But I couldn't know for sure—after all the weird events that had happened since he'd shown up, this could just be another to add to the list.

The branches of the trees creaked ominously in the wind, and the hairs on the back of my neck tingled.

Don't look up, don't look up, don't look up…

After a few seconds of frozen fear, I took off running again, heading for the campsite. I knew it was close, but my muscles had barely recovered, ache and fatigue threatening to collapse my legs like a house of cards.

I heard Ashburn growl again, and I could definitely pick out the sounds of branches snapping and swaying as he leapt through the canopy after me. I could see the light where the trees thinned out, the sun reflecting off the lake's surface; hope filled my body and pushed me just that little bit further as I leapt free of the woods, but it was too late.

His weight slammed into me from behind and claws wrapped around my torso in a full body tackle, sending us flying across the grass, rolling over and over. I'm not proud of the noise that left my mouth at this moment, but I don't see how anyone could have reacted otherwise. I shrieked like a little girl and tried to cover my face with my arms as we tumbled to the edge of the lake, and then into it, finally stopping in the shallows. I cringed and tried to curl in on myself, waiting for teeth to sink into my skin.

"Ha! I win!" he crowed, and I squinted one eye open to see him grinning victoriously down at me. All the tension immediately drained from my body and I went limp, enjoying the cool water washing over my sweaty, tired and very sore limbs.

"Was the heart attack really necessary?" I mumbled. I wanted to sound at least a little annoyed, but didn't have the slightest ounce of energy to pull it off.

"Heart attack? What's that?" he asked with his usual curiosity.

"It's a…ugh, never mind, I can't be bothered explaining," I let my head fall back onto the water weeds that covered the lakebed. "How the hell do you have so much energy anyway? You don't look even the slightest bit tired."

"I dunno, I just…do? It must be this body, I feel really strong and I want to do stuff all the time!" he started bounding about to emphasize the point, and I only groaned in response. "I'm gonna go swimming again," he announced, leaping past me into the water.

"You do that," I sighed. "I'm gonna…lie here for a few minutes. Or hours."

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

I laid on my back, paws resting on my stomach, wings tucked into my sides and staring up into the sky. Aiden suggested I use his rucksack to prop my head up; due to the shape of my body, I found I had to crane my neck to see the stars. So here we were, 'stargazing' as he called it.

It was beautiful.

Hundreds of points of light dotted the night, which faded from dark blue into a muted orange from the setting sun, though the campfire smoke obscured it a little. A faint nebula could be seen spanning from horizon to horizon—that was the shape of the galaxy we were in, Aiden told me—and the trees seemed to stretch taller to touch it, their tops waving in the wind. The stars themselves varied in size, colour and proximity to each other, some shining brightly in small clusters while others could barely be seen at all, distant and tiny in the vast void. It both amazed and excited me to see the sheer potential that lay in this universe alone, and, even better, Aiden seemed to share my passion.

"…it's just insane to think about everything that could be out there—alien civilizations, exo-planets, all kinds of different star systems and things science can't even explain yet…it's awesome," he sighed wistfully.

I crooned in agreement. "And this is only one universe in…countless others. They can have more or less dimensions, everything down to the fundamental level can work differently, the definition of life changes…"

"I still haven't gotten it through my skull that we can just…create universes. By thinking about them. That's…" he shook his head and laughed, unable to find the words.

I turned my head to give him an amused grin. "Well if you don't fully form the idea, it just ends up being a void universe which eventually collapses and disappears. You need to give an idea a lot of thought before it becomes self-sustaining."

"Oh, that's a relief…so there's just a constant cycle of these 'void' worlds appearing and disappearing?"

"Yeah. One of the first things Tutor taught me was never to go near them—if you get stuck in a universe when it collapses…you're dead. There's no escaping your existence being deleted."

Aiden gave a small shudder at the thought. "I think I'll just stick to my own universe. It's terrifying enough on its own."

"How much do you know about it? You explained schools and stuff, and you said humans have been to the moon, sent robots all over the system…"

"I know bits and pieces. I used to be really interested in space, I wanted to be part of the first Mars colony, but that…was a long time ago. Now I'm just stuck here," he said, and I heard anger spike in his voice before he suppressed it. "At least I get to wander about for a good while now, since work's done."

It took me a moment to realize what he meant. "You mean…you just do what we're doing now? Sleep under the stars, explore the wilderness? …Alone?"

"Yup."

I raised my head to look at him, but he avoided my eyes and rolled to his side, moving into his sleeping bag. Assuming he was bedding down for the night, I awkwardly wriggled onto my front and off the rucksack, standing up to stretch my muscles. Because I was so new to having physical senses, I could feel every small pull and ache in my body. But it also meant that stretching and cracking my joints felt _extremely_ satisfying.

"Ashburn?"

I turned at Aiden's voice, a little worried at the tone. He sounded…small. Scared.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think that…thing, the Silhouette, whatever it was…is it coming back?" he had sat up a little, staring out across the lake at where it had first appeared.

"I don't know…I've never seen or heard anything like it…" I stepped a little nearer. "But I don't think we should worry about it…it might never appear again for all we know."

"I guess…" he looked up, staring wide-eyed at the great black nothingness above us. I debated for a moment on whether I should try to comfort him or not—every part of me wanted to curl around him, hold him tight to my chest and hug his fears away, both for his benefit and my own. But I knew he didn't feel the same.

I settled on lying down between Aiden and the lake, blocking his view of it. I pointedly placed my tail on his stomach, meeting his gaze in a wordless gesture.

'_I'll protect you.'_

He gave me a grateful smile, which I returned, and we both lay our heads down to sleep, feeling much more relaxed.

I'd never really thought about sleeping before—it was a completely new experience but I'd been a bit…preoccupied the last two nights. I knew from the Library all I needed to do to sleep was close my eyes, calm my mind and—

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

—wow, that was weird.

I blinked a few times, rubbing the side of my paw across the corner of my eye to clear it. I shivered a little, and glanced over to the sun to see it flickering through the trees.

Ugh, why did I have to wake up so early? Aiden wouldn't be up for ages if yesterday was anything to go by. I stood up and moved over to him, nudging the side of his head with my nose.

"Aiden? Aiden wake up."

He groaned and snuggled deeper into his sleeping bag.

"Come ooon," I persisted, poking him lightly in the side with my claws. "The sun's up, we can do stuff now!"

He mumbled something incoherent and pulled the hood of the bag over himself, trying to block out my voice.

"Pleeeeeaaase?" I mewled, stretching my neck over and leaning forward, trying to gain an angle to stare at him imploringly from. I finally managed to get an upside-down glimpse of him trying to hide his face before he gave up.

"Ugh…I thought with work finished I could sleep in, but ohhh no, of _course_ you had to be the 'morning' type," he glared and poked me in the chest.

"Does this mean you're getting up now?" I perked up.

He sighed. "Yes…"

"Yay!" I retracted my teeth, leaned down and grabbed his shoulder with my gums, trying to haul him to his feet. Turns out, sleeping bags don't just slide off like I thought it would, and I only succeeded in getting Aiden upright, still cocooned in the thick fabric.

"Ack! Ashburn let go of me! Can't I get up at my own pace?" he glared at me as I released his shoulder. At least he was standing now.

"A quarter of the day had already gone by the time you got up yesterday!"

"You threw a fish at my face. And it was _still alive!_"

"That was an accident. Besides, you enjoyed it didn't you?"

"Sure, after I washed the dragon drool off—" he tried to gesture with his arms, losing his balance, and with his legs still stuck in the bag he couldn't do anything but fall. I quickly leaned forward, allowing him to topple onto my head.

"Just put me down," he said in a muffled voice, his nose and mouth squashed against my scales. I lay down carefully, then tipped my head to the side, causing him to roll onto the grass.

He scowled up at me, still somewhat trapped in his sleeping bag, looking like a particularly angry worm.

"I hate you."

I nuzzled the side of his face. "No you don't."

He let out a long-suffering sigh.

"No I don't."

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

I followed Ashburn down to the edge of the water and stopped as he leapt in, apparently wanting to show me something.

"You watching?" he asked excitedly.

"What else would I be doing?" I replied sarcastically. I smiled regardless as he began swimming just like he'd done yesterday—wings out, paws paddling and tail flicking. I had been extremely relieved to discover that he'd gotten over the fear of the water that I'd accidentally instilled in him, and even more so when he told me it was because of what I'd said that he was able to do so.

The first surprise came when he simply tucked in his wings and kept on swimming like nothing had changed—getting over a fear was one thing, but to push himself even further and learn to swim properly was a whole other level of courage.

"That's great!" I called, genuinely happy for him.

"I haven't even showed you the best bit yet!"

I watched in astonishment as he began to flap his wings into the surface of the water, drastically increasing his speed each time he did. Within seconds he was rocketing back and forward, a huge froth spraying up like a trail from a jet as he pushed his body through the surface tension of the lake. Then he took it a step further and disappeared underwater entirely, and all I could see was the wake that he was generating on the surface as he shot past like a torpedo.

After a few passes, Ashburn burst back to the surface again and ran back to shore, a huge toothy smile plastered on his face.

"How'd you learn that?!" I asked, flabbergasted.

"I don't know, I just…figured I could kinda push myself with my wings the same as I do with my tail. It took me a while to sort the exact motions out, because I had to push forward, not up, but when I'm doing it, it feels like I'm flying!" he raced around in circles, wings half extended and I laughed and tried to turn on the spot to keep up with him.

And then we both stopped, looking straight at each other with expressions of complete realization as what he'd said sank in.

"You don't think…"

In a moment of near-telepathic understanding, he rushed back towards the lake as I was about to tell him to, and swam quickly out to the deepest area. He then dove straight down, and I almost immediately lost track of him in the murk of the water. I could only wait anxiously on the shore as he went down and down, right to the lakebed, before turning around and pushing for the surface.

After around ten seconds he exploded upward into view again, and this time he didn't stop. He continued the motions he'd taught himself, pushing through the air just as he'd done with the water, except this time it required even less effort for him to gain height, no longer burdened with the viscosity of liquid. Within moments Ashburn was several dozen metres above me, and he took a glance down to see how far he'd come, letting out a joyful cry at finally being in flight. He relaxed for only a second, eyes closed in bliss, but the disadvantage of air was that it couldn't support his weight. He toppled backwards, losing his rhythm and tumbling through the sky, plummeting towards the lake again. He screeched in confusion, used to the buoyancy of water and now finding it gone.

"FLOAT!" I yelled as loud as I could, hoping he would understand what I meant. His panicked eyes met mine for a brief moment as he fell, and I remembered how afraid he'd been that first time he tried to swim.

He twisted around and spread his wings as if he was using them to float on the surface, his tail straightened out behind him and then he was gliding, though still quite steeply downwards. He stretched out his neck, looking upwards as though he could will himself to pull up, and I wrung my hands together as he got closer and closer to the ground. Realizing he wasn't turning, he curved his whole body in an arc and began to flap his wings again, clumsily slowing down before gaining altitude again. Once he was well above the trees he flattened out, gaining confidence as he soared around the area, making slow and careful turns.

He roared gleefully down at me as he passed overhead and I couldn't help but cheer back and punch the air in a fit of uncharacteristic exhilaration. I didn't care who saw me—a hundred strangers could be staring at me right now and I wouldn't give a damn, seeing Ashburn accomplish so much after his struggles, just flying, something dragons were born to do! It was impossible to describe the feeling.

I tried my best to follow him from the ground as he banked and wheeled across the sky, albeit wobblily, sprinting around the shore of the lake so I could keep watching him. I'm not sure how long this went on for—we turned it into a sort of game— but eventually as he was passing nearby, he shouted down:

"How do I land?!"

"How should I know?!" I called, unable to help but laugh at the question, still a little lost in the excitement. "In the water I guess?"

He circled around before gliding downwards over the lake, trying to slow himself by flapping but only succeeding in gaining height again. His momentum gradually died off, and he ended up dropping straight down into the water with a huge splash, paddling over to the shallows with a grin stretched across his muzzle. I ran to him as he trotted ashore, wrapping him in a brief hug which he happily returned.

"I did it!" he trilled, unable to resist hopping in place from the energy of it all.

"I know!" I whooped. "It was incredible! High five—" I stopped mid-gesture, realizing that he wouldn't be able to pull it off with his paws, and definitely wouldn't know what it was in the first place.

"What's that?" he sniffed at my hand, before pressing his snout into it, obviously thinking I was going to pet him.

I laughed and pulled my hand away. "A high five—it's something humans do when we're excited. Like this—" I clapped my hands together. "—except it's with two people."

"Ohhh, I get it," he looked at his paws for a moment, coming to the same conclusion as I did, before glancing up again. "What if I use my tail?"

"That…would probably work actually! Try it!" I held my hand up again. He moved back a bit before twisting around and flicking his tail at my palm, and I nearly fell over at the force of it. One of his tailfins slapped solidly into my skin, the combined strength of all his tail muscles behind it, and my eyes bulged out of my head.

"FFFFFFFF—" I collapsed to my knees, holding my furiously stinging hand to my chest as if it would cool the pain, eyes watering.

"Um…did I do it too hard?"

"Yep…" I squeaked. "Just a bit."

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

After Ashburn's resounding success in the air, we both needed something to calm us down, and since he hadn't had his breakfast yet, he actually had the motivation to hunt. What he _didn't_ have, was the ability to be patient.

"How is it that you can chase me through the trees almost silently, and yet you can't get near any animal without making a huge racket?" I hissed to him as we picked our way slowly through the forest.

"I don't know…" he mumbled, wincing as he snapped a particularly brittle branch. "There was no pressure when we were playing, it was just for fun. Now I need to be quiet, or I'll go hungry, so I panic."

"Pretend it's a game then," I suggested. "Pretend you're chasing me, except you're actually going to eat the thing you catch."

"What?!" he shouted, and I had to shush at him to be quiet. "I'm not going to imagine eating you!"

"No, that's not what…wait, there!" I whispered, pointing. In the distance I briefly saw the head of a deer pass behind a tree, and Ashburn immediately lowered himself right to the ground. "Alright, if you can't keep quiet, don't bother trying to be. Just sprint at it—I seem to remember that was your solution to the problem before. You're a Night Fury; you should be able to catch it easily."

"Are you sure?" he gave me a worried glance.

"Honestly, I haven't a clue, but you won't know until you try."

He looked back at the deer that had reappeared from behind a bush, briefly tensed himself, and then took off, his powerful legs bringing him to high speeds within seconds.

So much for calming down.

I could only watch with baited breath as his prey immediately took off at the sudden noise, and they both quickly disappeared into the distance, the sound of Ashburn's paws hitting the ground slowly fading away.

I stood up, stretched my back, and began casually walking in the direction they'd gone. God knows how long he'd have to chase that poor deer before he actually caught it—I was a little worried he'd go far enough that he might get lost.

My worries were immediately snuffed out as I saw the deer come jumping frantically back towards me, Ashburn still hot on its tail. I stood there, stumped, as they both sprinted back past me in the opposite direction.

"What the…how did you manage _that?!_" I shouted after him.

I heard a thump and a panicked yelp from the deer as he finally managed to grab hold of it, pinning it to the ground.

"I got it!" he called back to me. "What do I do now?"

"Oh for the love of—kill it! Bite into its neck!" I jogged towards the noise, still unable to see him through the undergrowth. The deer was still making frantic noises as it tried to escape, and I was beginning to think it might just die of fear.

"Um…it's not working!"

"What do you mean it's not working?! Just bite it!" I shouted, both exasperated and confused.

"I am!"

"…Do you have your teeth retracted?"

The deer's cries were suddenly silenced, and it took a few seconds for the sheepish reply to come.

"…Maybe?"

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

I stared at the screen of my phone, feeling more confused than ever. I'd decided to look up how cold-blooded animals worked, to see if I could help Ashburn in any way, and what I was reading did not line up with what he told me at all.

According to Google—and to the level that I could understand it—normal reptiles body heat matched their environment. So, if it was hot, they'd be hot; if it was cold, they'd be cold. They needed to take time to soak in the heat from the sun, and they hibernated through winter when it was cold. They were also more active when it was warm, and sluggish when it wasn't.

Ashburn meanwhile, seemed to be just fine in cold environments (like the lake) so long as the sun was out. His body seemed to retain heat longer than reptiles, he was able to shiver—which cold-blooded animals couldn't apparently—and he didn't become sluggish when it was chilly. But he was still a lot more susceptible to cold than I was…none of it made any sense.

"So…as long it's vaguely warm, you're fine, and if the sun's out and you're swimming in cold water, you're fine…but what if a cloud blocks out the sun then? Do you start to get really cold really fast?" I asked him, trying to figure out where exactly the problems started and what I needed to watch out for.

"I don't know," he rolled playfully about on the grass, turning briefly to face me. "It's not like I suddenly feel like I'll pass out when it gets a little cold…being in shade is fine, I just prefer the sun. Why does it matter? The fire's enough to keep me warm through the nights, and it's been really warm every day."

"Because at some point, it won't be. It's autumn—the weather is rarely ever this good in October and there's no way it'll hold for much longer. At some point, we're going to get an absolute downpour of rain, and I…" I swallowed, forcing myself to continue. "…I need to know you'll be okay through that."

"I'm sure I'll be fine," he said confidently, rolling onto his paws. "Tutor will find me before long, and then I can just go to the Above whenever it gets cold, or if you're working!"

I raised an eyebrow at this, not having heard his plans for the future before. "You're going to come back here?" A mixture of relief, happiness and confusion swirled in my head.

"Well…yeah!" he answered, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Why wouldn't I?"

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, trying to find an answer. "I…figured you were just going home permanently, away from all the physical stuff like having senses, eating…"

"Sure, that was…scary at first. Really scary. But thanks to you, I know how to survive now, and I've just gotten used to it all. It's really beautiful here, and I like talking about Earth with you," he moved over and lay down beside me, nosing my shoulder. "And I'm_ definitely_ not going to just leave you here alone with the Silhouette around."

I suddenly felt a lump rising in my throat and sat up to turn my head away from him, hiding my face as a couple of tears spilled down it. My neck burned with embarrassment as I tried to quickly wipe them away and regain my breath.

'_Oh good, awkward and unable-take-the-slightest-emotion Aiden is back'_ my subconscious sniped. The last day or so, I really had turned into a different person…I'd actually relaxed for the first time in…months.

"Aiden?" Ashburn's worried voice came from behind me. "Is something wrong? Was it something I said? Did I—"

"No, you're good," I turned back around, hoping my eyes didn't look red. There was a moment of awkward silence before he noticed my phone, still in my hand.

"Hey, what's that?" he tilted his head at it. It was showing the website where I'd been looking into how warm- and cold-blooded animals worked.

"It's a page of the internet, a sort of…worldwide network of information. I suppose it's kind of like—"

"Humanity has its own LIBRARY and you never _told me?!_" he got absolutely ecstatic as this news, and I think he was trying to bounce on his paws, except it didn't really work when he was lying down, so he just looked like he was wriggling in excitement. Which he also probably was, thinking about it.

"Please can I look, please please pleeeaaase?" he begged me, shuffling closer with each word.

"Well, uh…" I was extremely hesitant—I knew what kinds of things were on the internet, and I also knew how insatiable his curiosity was. He stared at me with his big black pupils, a faint whine escaping his throat as he pleaded with me for permission. He could have just knocked my phone out my hands and stolen it, but he hadn't.

And then he switched from hopeful to sad, and even though I knew he was faking it for show, my heart nearly broke. He lowered his head to the ground, his emotional eyes boring up into my soul, earfins pinned to the back of his neck.

I sighed.

"Fine…" I placed it on the ground in front of him and he immediately perked straight back up, giving a cheerful yelp.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he rubbed his head against my cheek.

"Yeah, yeah," I pushed him away, glad he'd not figured out licking yet. "Can you even read the text on that?"

He focused back on my phone, looking carefully at the screen. "No, but the images are just as interesting! And I can figure out how to use it from the Library, there's loads of references to interfaces just like this." He began to scroll the touchscreen with a claw, completely focusing in on the new source of information.

"You can understand me, but you can't read that?" I wondered aloud, and he only grunted in response. Experimentally, I waved my hand in front of his face, and he only blinked, not even sparing me a glance.

I smirked. "Kids and their phones these days…"

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

The next few days passed without incident. Ashburn continued to practice flying and hunting, and when he wasn't tiring himself out doing that, he was surfing the internet on my phone and asking me questions about the things he saw. Sometimes he'd be on web pages using hyperlinks to navigate to whatever interested him, other times he'd simply be scrolling through Google Images. He'd often ask me to type something into the search bar that he wanted to know about, or he'd use the 'related images' function to find new content. It was impressive how quickly he'd learned to use it, and his claw seemed to work just as well as a finger would on a touchscreen—he started using it so much I had to break out my solar charger and power pack.

He managed to coax me into a few more games of tag, and then had the brilliant idea of trying it whilst swimming. That was…something else. Most of the time though, I just chilled out and did nothing all day, much to Ashburn's irritation. But I was on my holiday, and somehow the weather was still impossibly warm and sunny, though the clouds were amassing day by day. The Silhouette still hadn't shown itself for a second time, and I began to feel comfortable in the knowledge that it probably wasn't coming back. Ashburn always slept next to me though, never more than a couple of metres away, and I appreciated it, despite the return to my awkward mannerisms.

I caught him a few times just staring aimlessly up at the sky, an anxious expression on his features, and I knew he was desperate to go home.

Then one evening, as we were about to turn in for the night, Ashburn seemed to collapse. I gave him an amused glance, thinking he'd just exhausted himself so much his legs couldn't hold him up any longer and thought nothing of it, wriggling into my sleeping bag as usual.

A few minutes later as I was staring at the stars, I heard a loud gasp from him as if he'd been holding his breath. I sat up and looked over as he frantically jumped to his feet and whipped his head back and forth, searching for something.

"Tutor! _Tutor!_ Come back!" he dashed around the camp, glancing out along the shoreline and through the trees. I hurriedly stood up to get his attention.

"Ashburn, what's going on? Is it the Silhouette?"

He gradually slowed down as he realized no-one else was here, and turned to me with panicked eyes. "No, no, Tutor made a Connection with me, he found me! A-and then h-he…he said…" his breathing became hitched and unsteady as his sight lowered to the ground. He silently came padding over to the fire, lay down with shaky legs, and began to cry.

I stood where I was, feeling like an intruder to a private situation. How was I supposed to react to this? I could barely deal with my own issues as it was—trying to help with someone else's, a _child's?_ That was beyond me.

But I couldn't just…ignore him either. That felt wrong, on so many levels, and, despite my uncomfortableness and my stupid brain, I had to do something. I felt my own eyes reddening and my throat tightening as I watched him in anguish, tears streaming out of his eyelids, squeezed shut to try and hide the pain. Dammit, why did I feel like this? I was meant to be the mature, strong-minded one here!

How would I want to be treated, if our places were reversed?

'_I'd want to be left alone.'_

But he wasn't me, not by a long shot. He was excitable, immature, ridiculously energetic, reckless, had a constant thirst for knowledge and…he was kind. Every time I'd felt scared, or worried…he was there. He always made sure I knew he was close.

I took a deep breath, tried to clear the lump in my throat to little success, and carefully sat down beside him. I don't think he even noticed.

After a moment's hesitation, I placed my hand on his neck and began to rub rhythmically back and forward, hoping I could provide at least a little comfort. His sobbing paused for a moment, and I tried to gently wipe away some of his tears with my other hand.

"What happened?" I asked quietly.

Ashburn tried to slow his crying down, taking several deep trembling breaths, until he felt ready to talk.

"T-t-tutor…h-he told m-me what was happening…he s-said I can't g-go back home!" his sobbing began anew, but he wasn't trying to hold it in any more. The quiet weeping became great wails that wracked his whole body with shuddering, that alien keening, howling noise that I'd heard on the day we first met rising up and washing over me in waves of sound. He surged into me, trying to bury his snout in my chest and wrapping his forepaws around my back in a tight and desperate embrace.

It took me a moment to react, curling both my arms around his neck and scratching his scales in soothing symmetrical patterns. He was clinging onto me so tightly I almost had difficulty breathing, but his sharp claws never so much as tore my clothing, and his convulsions rocked my whole body along with them.

"Shhhh…shhhh…" I tried to slowly calm him down, leaning onto the top of his head and feeling like I needed to be bigger, to surround him in warmth and comfort as he'd done for me after the Silhouette attacked. I moved my hands down to his sides, trying to caress his sorrow away as I felt his tears soaking through my t-shirt.

I tried not to cry myself, the lump in my throat seeming as though it could block my breathing from the size of it, and I laid my head down between his earfins. I understood now, why this was affecting me so much—it was like looking into a mirror from a year ago. My parents had kicked me out, forcing me to get a job and earn a living after I completely failed school. I had come to terms with it after a while, and I knew why they'd done it—I almost thanked them for it.

But those first few days, when I thought I'd been abandoned, feeling completely alone…I looked just like Ashburn did now.

Except I didn't have anyone to turn to.

I held him a little tighter against my chest as another shudder overtook him, but his keening wails were beginning to fade. Slowly but surely, over the course of a few minutes, he quietened and lessened his grip, until eventually he pulled back, turning to the fire with a sniffle. I kept one hand on his neck, feeling the small, fine scales at the base of his head and rubbing back and forward.

"I'm gonna need to change my shirt now," I joked, trying to lighten the mood and looking down at the tear-soaked fabric.

Ashburn let out a short, choked laugh. "Sorry."

"Don't be," I gave a small smile.

"There was more though," his face turned serious. "Tutor said—"

"It doesn't matter," I said firmly. "Not right now. We'll deal with it tomorrow. You need to sleep."

"But—"

"Tomorrow," I repeated, running my fingers along the top of his head. "I'm going to go to sleep right beside you, alright? I'll be here if you need me."

He looked like he wanted to say more, and then shifted onto his side, unfurling a wing and raising it a little. He looked at the space against his stomach, then back at me, not saying a word but making it perfectly clear what he meant.

"…You were totally awake that night after the Silhouette weren't you?" I realized.

"Yeah," he gave a guilty smile, and I sighed. Every single instinct told me not to do it, that it was wrong, somehow, and that I'd be judged for it.

I told my instincts to sod off.

I crawled underneath his wing, and he wrapped the membrane around me like a gentle cocoon, lifting me off the ground. He set me down with my head against the side of his paw, curling his whole body into a circle, tailfins tucked against the back of his neck.

I reached up and wiped one last small tear from the corner of his eye as he met mine with a worried gaze.

"Please don't ever go," he whimpered.

I gave a conceding breath in response, knowing that, despite my anti-social nature and attitude, I could never turn away from him if he needed me.

"I'm not going_ anywhere_."

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

**Author's Note**

Welp, this is the best chapter I've ever written. I think the reason it took so long was because there's so MANY scenes in it, and starting or finishing a scene is always the hardest part. Not only that but this actually within my two-month minimum update time! I uploaded chapter 4 on February 9th, and it's currently April 6th. I am extremely proud of it, and I think the comedy worked pretty well. Also, I tried to do something with the syntax of the scene breaks, hopefully it'll have naturally sunk in after I used so many of them lol.

I really REALLY want to hear your thoughts on this, so yes, I am going to beg you for reviews. Just a little bit. :P If you reviewed the hiatus update, and it says you can't review this because they're the 'same chapter', just send me a PM.

Thanks to my amazing betas CrazyGamer313, jbarron, netWARIOR and acitysurvivor for their help and support, and you for reading!

Rowan


	6. Chapter 6 - Perspective

**Chapter 6 – Perspective**

For the first time in a week, I wasn't woken up by Ashburn's nagging.

I came to, a little confused and unable to move much, but still warm and comfortable. For a brief moment I assumed it was simply my sleeping bag restricting my movement, and then I remembered what happened the night previous.

It was Ashburn's breathing I could hear right beside me, his scales that were all around me…

I felt a spike of anxiety as I realized where I was. I tried to move my arms, to escape the dark confines of his wing. If someone saw me like this, they would completely get the wrong idea! What was I thinking?!

I got my answer as I finally managed to get one arm free, and started pulling myself out, accidentally knocking my elbow against Ashburn's snout. I winced and stopped moving as he groaned, shifted, but didn't wake up. He stretched in his sleep and dazedly curled a paw around my waist, dragging me back into his hold with surprising strength. He purred as he tucked his head against my neck, and I noticed the dried tear tracks down his cheeks from last night.

Right…that was what I was thinking. I relaxed again and tried to tune out the outrageous scenarios my brain was making up. Sleeping in such close proximity didn't have to infer anything intimate...he was just a lost, scared child that needed help. He was in desperate need of someone to console him after he'd essentially been orphaned by Tutor, and I felt my face twist into a scowl at the thought. _One_ mistake and they had just locked Ashburn out, leaving him in an alien world with only his own wits and that 'Library'.

I'd meant what I said last night—I wouldn't abandon him.

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

I dozed on and off for the next while, until eventually I felt Ashburn shift and wake up as well.

"Morning," I mumbled, slowly getting to my feet as he uncurled himself from around me.

He said nothing, standing up and looking tiredly around, seeming a little lost.

I sighed and softly rubbed one of his earfins between my fingers. "Why don't we both get some breakfast, then we can talk about last night, okay?" I suggested, meeting his eyes. He gave a small nod, rapidly blinking a few times before moving into the lake, lacking his usual energy. I kept a careful eye on him until he submerged, then got out some cereal.

With the knowledge that Ashburn would be staying with me for the foreseeable future, I began to think. It would be easy enough for us to do what I'd planned already—months of travelling and camping. But there was one major obstacle I needed to cross first…

I formulated a plan, and with it set in my head, focused back on reality as I heard Ashburn come back to shore.

"Feeling better?"

"A bit," he said quietly. Unsurprisingly, he lay down around me so my back was against his side, and I put my arm over his shoulders as he settled.

"Now…you said there were some other things Tutor told you last night?" I continued eating with my free hand.

"Y-yeah…um," he sniffled, and then seemed to compose himself again. I focused on my food, not wanting to put any pressure on him until he was ready. "Tutor said…he knows what the Silhouette is."

I was caught off-guard, and turned to him with a surprised look. "What?"

"Apparently it's one of the Chaotics…he thinks they must have been spying on the Utopian Network when I…left."

"Oh shit…they're the guys that just hurt people for fun, aren't they?"

"Yeah…and I led them s-straight to y-you!" he began to sob, and I quickly put down my bowl, wrapping my other arm under his chin.

"Hey, hey, no you didn't. You couldn't have known," I reassured him, gently but firmly turning his head so I could meet his eyes. "Ashburn, look at me. There was _no way_ you could have known."

"B-but if I'd never come here in the first place…you wouldn't have been attacked by the Silhouette! And I wouldn't have gotten locked out of the Above…everything would have been so much better…" he quietened, staring at the ground again as I relaxed my hold.

"I think you're being a little ridiculous. We haven't seen the Silhouette in almost a week; it probably thought we were too boring and left to go bother someone else," I tried to joke a little to lighten his mood. "And hey, we would never have met otherwise," I smiled.

"I guess…" the corners of his mouth turned up, and he looked at me with gratitude written all over his face. "Spending time with you has been really nice," he nuzzled my side.

For the first time, I welcomed the reddening of my cheeks as I scratched the back of his head. We sat for a moment in comfortable silence, before I reluctantly got back to the topic at hand.

"So…was that the reason you weren't allowed to go back home?"

"Kind of. Tutor said I couldn't come back because it might draw more of the Chaotics to the Utopian Network, and they might try something…I'm not really sure. But it's my fault. I…stole pattern matrices and used them to get here, and that's not allowed," he lowered his head in shame.

"Heh, I can completely understand breaking the rules to get what you want," I chuckled.

He looked up hopefully, eyes widening slightly. "You can?"

"Oh yeah. When I was in school, I'd basically given up on wanting to study—I only wanted to go exploring, so I snuck out of class constantly. Eventually my parents had enough and kicked me out. I know exactly what you're going through," I provided him with a reassuring gaze, mouth tilting upward.

"Thanks," his expression brightened, knowing he wasn't alone.

"So, what are these 'pattern matrices' then?"

"They're these sort of diagrams that entities use to do things they can't normally. I copied them from Tutor's memory when he wasn't paying attention to me…"

"Wait, wouldn't he be able to tell? Even afterward, since your minds are linked in the Above?"

"He was focusing on something else, so I just had a quick look at his memories of them, and I had to be really careful not to think about them after. Usually we only get each other's most recent thoughts unless we go looking for a specific memory…like what they're thinking at the moment, not all memories at once. That could be…really damaging for any entity, getting all those experiences and knowledge from someone's mind."

"Yeah I can imagine…" I sat back, lost in thought once again as Ashburn explained a little more of his world. "Was there anything else Tutor told you that I should know about?"

"Um…yeah. He said he's glad you found me so you can teach me about this world, and I don't get hurt. That way I can still contribute knowledge to the Library, even if I can't be in the Above."

"You're still Connected to it then? Despite being, y'know…" I made a vague gesture.

"Yeah, it's still there. I don't really know how it all works though—Tutor didn't really have much of a chance to teach me in the four weeks I _was_ there, so I just have to guess for a lot of it. I think my mind is actually now in this body, instead of in the Above, otherwise I'd be able to get back to it. The Library is like…a weaker Connection? It's hard to describe…" his eyes glazed over a little as he focused, staring into the middle distance.

"So, when Tutor Connected with you, was he Connecting to your mind within your physical form? I remember you passed out last night."

"No, he brought me back to the Above briefly, which meant I must have actually left this body," he sighed and laid his head down on the grass. "I thought I was going home…and then it was just…gone."

I made a sympathetic face, scratching his neck. "Well it's not all bad."

His eyes flicked towards me questioningly.

"Tutor didn't want you coming here in the first place right? If you go back to the Above, he might not let you leave again."

"And I would be stuck as an Observer, maybe forever…" He lifted his head, catching on to my train of thought.

"Exactly, but this way…" I prompted.

"This way I get to learn and explore anyway, add to the Library, and help all the other Utopians out!" he grinned at this realization, and I returned it.

"Yep! And you'll have a lot more to learn, come this evening," I gave him a sly smile.

"What? What are we doing?" he asked excitedly, his earfins perked up.

"It's a surprise," I smirked as he pouted, having predicted his exact reaction. "What I _can_ tell you though, is that we're going to spend the day travelling back to Keswick, and you're going to get to see my home."

"Ooooh!" his eyes widened.

"But first," I picked up my bowl. "I need to finish my breakfast."

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

I swooped down to land beside Aiden, who was slooowly pushing his bike along through the forest again.

"Now?"

"No," he replied almost instantly.

"Please?" I made a keening noise in the back of my throat, turning to give him a tearful stare. It was all fake of course, but over the last week I'd learned Aiden was more susceptible to my pleas when I acted this way.

"For the millionth time Ashburn, _no_," he said firmly, but still with a small smile. "You'll enjoy this so much more if it's kept as a surprise. Go on, get back in the air, the more practice you have for tomorrow the better—it's a long journey and we won't be able to stop."

"But my wings hurt…" I rolled my shoulders, trying to make the aches disappear.

"Alright, walk for a stretch then, it's probably best you're not exhausted tomorrow."

"I don't understand; why do I need to fly so much tomorrow?" I tilted my head.

Aiden turned to me. "Because you'll be following the coach I'll be in for most of the journey. My family and I are going for a caravan holiday in a few days, and obviously I'm not going to leave you behind," I smiled and lightly pressed against his side at this. "So, I'll introduce you to my family before we go, and we'll just try to keep you hidden. My original plan was to take the bus most of the way, then camp the last little distance, and that works fine, except it means you need to be able to keep up with said bus, all without being seen yourself."

"Why can't I let anyone see me? I'd love to meet people!"

"Because…of the reaction they'll probably have," he sighed and stopped walking, and I sat on my haunches to listen. "They'll most likely think you're dangerous—despite the fact that you're not," he quickly added as I opened my mouth to disagree. "Dragons are…usually seen as aggressive predators by humans, so if you're seen just walking around, chances are there'll be panic. Then someone will call the police, or worse, and…I just don't know what will happen. I don't want you getting shot, or locked up in a cage."

"Couldn't I try talking to them? Wouldn't they be okay with me if they knew I wasn't going to hurt them?"

"Oh yeah, because that went so well the last time," he snapped sarcastically, and I winced, pulling back my earfins. I remembered what happened with the woman I ran into before…she thought I was going to _eat_ her…

Aiden's shoulders slumped. "Sorry. But, you will get to meet and talk to my family in a few days."

"Won't they be scared of me too?"

"They'll be wary, sure, but I'm going to tell them what to expect before they actually _see_ you, so that should help. They've also seen the film your body is from…aaand I've said too much," he turned on his heel and started quickly walking away.

I sat for a moment, trying to figure out what exactly he meant. "Hey, wait!" I leaped after him. "What film?"

He refused to give me even the slightest hint, no matter how much I begged, and eventually I gave up as the day went on. I'd seen all this scenery before, so to quell my boredom I started trying to get used to my other senses.

A lot of the time I'd been aware of the smells, sounds, tastes and feels of the world, but I had some trouble sorting through it all. The Library allowed me to identify some of them, but there was so much still foreign to me and my senses were stubbornly remaining highly sensitive, making it even more difficult. So I spent the parts of the day when I wasn't flying sniffing and touching each different thing I could find in the forest. I even tried tasting a few leaves and plants, but quickly stopped when Aiden told me some of them could be poisonous.

As it was getting quite dark, I started to hear new sounds in the distance, a lot of which I definitely couldn't recognize, along with a faintly acrid smell that I really didn't like.

"Are we getting close?" I asked Aiden, bounding alongside him as he cycled.

"Yup. Which means you're going to need to fly above me until we get to my flat. There won't be many people around at this hour, but better safe than sorry. Just make sure you don't lose me alright? I'll give you a wave when it's safe to come down."

"Okay," I took off, careful not to hit any trees on my way up. I kept glancing down to make sure I knew where Aiden was, but he wasn't too difficult to track; he had a strong light on the front of his bike, which became more and more obvious the darker it got. I could see a glowing area growing closer in the distance, and it quickly resolved into a large area of buildings and streets—Keswick.

I scanned over as much of it as I could while keeping an eye on Aiden, and I desperately wanted to fly down and investigate everything I could see. It felt like there were a thousand opportunities hanging just below me, and if I could just get a closer look at a few of them, then make a quick escape…

It seemed like Aiden had stopped in front of one of the taller buildings, and there was a dark spot not too far away.

'_As long as I don't get spotted, it's okay,' _I told myself.

I darted down into some kind of garden, seeing all sorts of colourful flowers and a strange, tiny building in the corner, an opening on its front. After a quick glance around I approached it, finding a curious smell emanating from the little house.

Suddenly, something shot out of the hole, causing me to jump backwards with a yelp. The little furry thing was barking and snarling like mad at me, and I realized it was a dog. It kept snapping and growling and I backed away, not wanting to get hurt or hurt it by mistake.

"Please be quiet, please," I whimpered, despite knowing it wouldn't be able to understand me.

Then I heard a door open, and a voice say in a shocked voice: "What the _fuck?!_"

I looked up at the sound and saw a woman standing at the back door of their house, staring straight at me. Aiden's words echoed through my head; _'Dragons are…usually seen as aggressive predators by humans, so if you're seen just walking around, chances are there'll be panic.'_

But it felt like I was far more panicked than she was.

Dread and fear jolted me into action, and I took off straight up, trying to get back into the darkness where I could hide. I heard a distinct click and saw a flash behind me as I rapidly turned in a circle mid-air, trying to find Aiden. I started to tremble a little until I spotted him frantically waving from the ground, and dove towards him.

"I-I'm sorry—" I began to stutter as soon as my paws hit the pavement, but Aiden quickly shushed me.

"Get inside, and _stay quiet_!" he hissed, holding the door to the tall building open.

I held my wings tightly to my sides and rushed through the doorway, finding it only just big enough to fit me. I had entered a large open room as Aiden shut the door quickly behind us and quietly ran ahead to another. Once again I could see a thousand little things I wanted to investigate, but I held myself back this time, sensing Aiden's anger at me.

He led me up a few sets of stairs and through a couple more doors, down a hallway and into another room. The entire time we tried to keep as quiet as possible while moving quickly, and he kept checking each corner for people before going around it.

As soon as we were both inside, he did something with the door after shutting it, and there was a satisfying click. Aiden let out a huge sigh of relief and sank down to the floor against it.

For a third time, I was presented with lots of objects I didn't understand right in front of me, but instead I sat down and hung my head. I'd done exactly what Aiden told me not to, and even worse, someone saw me!

I stared at my claws and cowered, waiting for him to shout at me, hate me like he hated all those other 'shitty people' he talked about before. A knot of tension tightened in my chest as the silence dragged on for a few moments, until he regained his breath and stood back up.

"What did you do Ashburn?"

"I'm sorry…" I cringed, expecting to feel an impact. I felt the slight movement of air as his hand came close to my cheek, and I flinched.

"What—hey…did you think I was going to _hit_ you?" Aiden asked incredulously.

I slowly looked up a little, giving a tiny nod.

"What would have made you…oh Christ," he dragged his hand down his face. "This is my fault isn't it? When you were learning to swim and I…did you think I would hit you any time you did something wrong?"

"…A little," I mumbled.

"_Fuck_…" he stood back, running his fingers through his hair.

"You're not…angry at me?" I asked tentatively, raising my head.

"No. Well, I am a little. But I'm absolutely not going to _hit_ you for it. I mean, you've already been through so much, and you're only a child, I can't exactly expect you to follow my every word…so no, I'm not angry at you," Aiden sighed with a small smile.

My heart fluttered with joy and relief, the emotional knot unravelled, and I leapt forward, wrapping my paws around his shoulders. I was careful to put my weight on my back legs so I didn't crush him, pulling him against my neck and tucking my head over his back. I felt him put his arms around me briefly before stepping back, and I fell onto my haunches again.

"Calm down, calm down," he laughed, his face turning serious. "I just need to make this clear—I'm not going to hit you for doing anything, alright? If I _ever_ do that again, and I have absolutely no intention of it, but if I do…I won't be thinking straight. I promise I will _never_ hit you for doing something wrong, okay?"

"Okay," I smiled gratefully, extremely glad that he wasn't angry at me, and had made that promise.

Aiden seemed to be as relieved as I was that the air had been cleared, and he took his rucksack off, leaning it against the wall by the door, letting out a long sigh.

"So um," I began to bounce a little on my paws, my tail swishing back and forward as I got excited. "Can I look around? There's so much here I've never seen before!"

"Go for it," he laughed, and I cooed happily. "Just try not to make too much noise alright? You're not really supposed to be here. And no licking anything; I need to keep this place clean for when we leave tomorrow."

I nodded eagerly, the terms set, and gave him another quick hug before turning to the multitudes of new things in front of me.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

I watched in amusement as Ashburn started poking around my apartment, sniffing and pawing at everything he could find. More often than not he'd ask what something was, what its purpose was and how it worked. A few times he knocked over a chair, pulled it back up and turned around, only to knock it over again with his tail or wings. Then as I pulled out a frozen pizza for my dinner, he realized that the cupboards could be opened, and that there was stuff in there too.

Eventually I sat down in front of the TV and gestured him over. The tiny sofa I had in my flat was obviously far too small to fit him alone, never mind both of us, so he lay down with his side against it.

"What are we doing?" he turned his head to give me an intrigued look. I pointed to the television in response as I turned it on and opened Netflix. I navigated to the first How to Train Your Dragon film and almost choked at seeing the familiar thumbnail. The last time I'd actually watched this was…over a year ago.

With Sophie.

At that moment, I was very glad Ashburn couldn't see my face. I quickly wiped at my eyes and took a trembling breath, before hitting play.

I tried to relax as the movie began, but with every moment, every recognizable visual and sound, all I could think of were the times when I used to watch it with her. I started to focus on Ashburn's reactions instead, which wasn't difficult as he was completely transfixed. But as the initial dragon raid scene began, his earfins curled back and he withdrew on himself, shock and horror evident in his eyes. I quickly paused the film and reached out a hand to his neck.

"You alright? You know this isn't real?"

He jumped as I touched him, obviously completely zoned in. It took him a moment to answer.

"…Somewhere it is," he said worriedly.

I opened my mouth to respond, and then immediately shut it, realizing he was right. If a universe was created any time anyone put enough thought into an idea…there were countless realities of it out there in the multiverse. Of…any piece of media…even non-fiction adaptations, stories, comics, video games…

I sat there, eyes bulging in awe and horror at the same time, before I shook myself and got back to the moment at hand. I could probably spend hours contemplating the possibilities and never actually _know_ anything about them.

Ashburn turned to me. "I-is conflict this bad everywhere? I never saw much, b-but this is…" he looked back at the film, paused on Vikings and dragons fighting relentlessly. "I thought the multiverse was nice…" he whimpered quietly.

Thoughts of humanity's wars and nuclear bombs flashed behind my eyes. I realized I was going to have to tell him what Earth was like sooner or later…

…but not right now.

I moved off the sofa, sitting beside him on the carpet. "It's really complicated honestly. But all you need to worry about at the moment, is that this film—" I gestured to the television. "—was created with kids in mind. Yes, there's fighting, but nobody really gets hurt, which would mean in the universe itself, somewhere out there, nobody gets hurt either, right?"

"I guess…" Ashburn wasn't convinced.

"Look, trust me, this film has a really happy ending, you'll enjoy it. Along with something else you'll see in a moment…" I pressed play again and watched his reaction, as the Vikings shouted; "NIGHT FURY! GET DOWN!"

That got his attention.

"Wait, but you said I was a—" he glanced at me with surprise and realization for a brief moment before turning back, not wanting to miss a single moment.

"Yup," I smiled amusedly. "Keep watching."

As the film went on, I found I was slowly able to relax. Despite my memories of Sophie haunting and tormenting me, having Ashburn at my side—just _existing_—seemed to nullify them. I began to enjoy How to Train Your Dragon for the first time in what felt like an eternity; seeing it after spending a week with an actual dragon put an interesting spin on the viewing experience. I leaned onto his side as I let out a long breath, feeling…at peace.

Ashburn's reactions to it all were entertaining in their own right—he jumped and yelped when Toothless pinned Hiccup to the rock, and when the Red Death was revealed he tried to hide behind the sofa. He cooed as Hiccup and Toothless became friends, and at the romance with Astrid. He even started to emulate some of Toothless' movements and expressions—as much as he could while lying down anyway.

The vast majority of the time though, he was simply staring in wonder, absorbing it all. When the credits finally rolled, there were tears of shock and joy trickling down his scales, and he seemed almost in a trance.

"So…questions?" I asked with mirth, imagining he had at least a few hundred.

He took a minute to recover, as if he was out of breath. Then eventually:

"Can we watch it again?"

I laughed, not expecting that, but didn't object. It only took a few minutes into the opening scene for the questions to start coming, several dozen at a time. We ended up making a little system; watch a scene, pause the film, answer as many questions as I could, resume. This went on for what must have been at least an hour before we came to the 'See You Tomorrow' montage.

"Try that scratching thing on me!" Ashburn said eagerly.

"What, on your chin?" I hummed, wondering if it would actually work the same way.

"Yeah!" he lifted his head to give me easy access. I reached out and scratched the scales in the same spot Hiccup had, dragging my fingernails across the surface. Immediately Ashburn's eyes rolled back in his head and he went completely limp, collapsing to the ground and purring loudly. I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

Then I noticed something strange—he had a scar. Not just any scar though; this was the same one that could be seen on Toothless in the film, on the right side of his neck. I glanced between Ashburn and the TV, confirming that they were in fact, _exactly_ the same.

Yet another confusing question with no real answer in sight—I was beginning to have quite the list of those.

I sighed and glanced at the time: 9PM. Dammit, I'd almost forgotten to get Ashburn some meats for tomorrow, since he wouldn't have time to hunt.

"Hey, can you hear me?" I gave his large head an experimental push, and all I got in response was purring. Figuring he would be like that for another while, I made a quick trip to the supermarket before it closed.

When I returned, it was to an ominous lack of noise. I dropped my bags at the door and peered cautiously at his dark form, the sofa blocking my view of his front half.

"Ashburn?" I asked, my voice cutting into the silence like a knife. I couldn't even hear him purring or snoring.

Starting to get quite worried, I made my way around until I could see his head, and froze. He was wide awake, eyes slitted and flickering back and forth. I dared not move for a moment, afraid that something might have happened to turn him 'wild'. Then his thin pupils locked on me and immediately softened, widening back into their usual shape. I breathed a small sigh of relief, but anxiety soon began to set in once again as I heard nothing but a weak gurgle come from his throat.

"A-Ashburn?" I stuttered out, rushing toward him and falling to my knees. "Are you okay? What happened?!" I placed my hand on his head as a couple of tears trickled down his cheeks. He didn't respond, only moving his eyes back and forward a little.

"Can you move? Can you talk?" I realized these were stupid questions as he still didn't answer. All he seemed to be able to do was move his pupils a small amount. "Okay uh…move your eyes up and down for yes, and side to side for no. Can you do anything?"

His gaze flicked left, then right. No.

"Shit…how did this happen? I left after I…scratched your chin…and you passed out," I looked up at the television in dawning comprehension, still paused on How to Train Your Dragon. "So…that paralyzed you? _How?_"

All Ashburn could do was stare at me, and I realized he was likely panicking and unable to show it, yet here I was just asking stupid questions with no answers. _Again_.

"Sorry," I sighed, rubbing his muzzle comfortingly. He closed his eyes and I finally heard a tiny purr as I gently ran my fingers over his head. "I guess we just have to hope, and wait for this to wear off. I'm sure it will…it has to," I said, both for my benefit and his own.

It had to.

I glanced around, unsure of what to do with myself, until my eyes landed on the TV remote. I sat down with my back against the sofa again, and heaved Ashburn's head and neck onto my legs so he could see the film better.

"You're bloody heavy you know that?" I grunted. "How many fish have you been _eating_?"

No answer came other than a small twitch of his jaw, so I simply resumed the film and wrapped my arms securely around Ashburn's neck. I scratched his scales soothingly and tried to relax as we waited for the paralysis to wear off…

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

**Author's Note**

Welp, there goes my two month minimum update interval. Sorry about that. But my plan is to release two, maybe three more chapters over the summer since I have a lot more time now. We've also passed 3,000 views as I'm writing this, which is mental, so thank you all very much! And of course, thanks to my beta readers netWARIOR and SteenGooier for putting up with my nagging :P

Also, to the guest(s?) leaving reviews asking about progress, I'd be able to PM you back if you created an account, just sayin'. It has given me an idea though—I'll start putting little updates on my FFN profile, just current word count progress and anything else I'm working on, so keep an eye on that. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thanks for reading!

Rowan


	7. Chapter 7 - Dependence

**Chapter 7 – Dependence**

The next few hours were a tense wait, filled with little bursts of hope as Ashburn slowly regained control of his body. It started with little jerks, like a dog twitching in its sleep, that evolved into bigger spasms of movement as more time passed. At one point he whacked me over the head with his wing, and could do nothing but give me an apologetic stare.

Eventually he was capable of more regular motion, though it remained clumsy and erratic. He struggled to get his tongue and mouth muscles to work together, but eventually managed to form a single slurred word.

"Scairehd," a whine rose from the back of his throat, followed by a strangled sob as his eyes dampened.

I could do nothing but try to hold him closer and tell him everything would be alright, hoping it at least provided some form of vague comfort to him. I felt his paw jerkily clamp around my leg, desperately clinging to me for reassurance.

Another few minutes passed in anxious silence before he spoke up.

"Gwhry?"

I smiled at hearing him talk again—a sign he was slowly returning to normal. "You know as much as I do…I'm just glad you're recovering," I gave his neck a squeeze.

"Noht…agein…"

It took me a moment to figure out what he meant, trying to distinguish his garbled English from the low draconic warbles.

"No, we'll make sure it doesn't happen again, I promise."

The effects seemed to wear off exponentially after that, and before long he was standing up and walking around again, testing each of his muscles. Meanwhile, I had started to pack the few things I had for my apartment into a large bag, wrapping the more delicate objects in towels, bedsheets and whatever soft fabric I had to hand.

When it was all said and done, my flat was clean and ready for me to move out, Ashburn had complete control of his muscles, and we were both absolutely drained of energy.

I automatically began to move towards my bed, and then stopped, staring at it. It felt like it would be wrong somehow, to use it instead of…sleeping alongside Ashburn. We both needed to relax after the paralysis scare, and it wasn't like he would have gotten over Tutor's message after just one day… Did we even need a reason? If it was this hard to get the words straight in my own head; how was I going to ask?!

I nearly jumped out of my skin as a scaly nose nudged my shoulder, and a small shriek escaped my mouth.

"Aiden?"

I had just been standing there, lost in my own thoughts. Probably for at least a few minutes.

"Uhhh…uh, yeah?" I ran my hands over my upper arms, fidgeting on the spot, suddenly feeling intensely awkward.

'_Dammit calm down_,' I ordered myself, taking a breath.

"Can we sleep?" he asked innocently, and I couldn't help but bark a short laugh as my tension bled away.

It was as simple as that.

"Yes, let's sleep," I sighed, relieved.

He lay down on the floor, his back resting on the edge of my bed, wings half-extended. I settled against his chest and gave an embarrassed 'thanks' as he put his paw gently underneath my head to act as a pillow. I scratched his earfins and he closed his eyes, tail wrapping around my shoulders. We both quickly drifted off, exhausted from our travel and stress from the paralysis.

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

I snapped awake the next morning, with the distinct feeling I had missed something. I lay there for a moment, heart hammering like a drum, adrenaline pumping through my body even as I tried to figure out what had me panicked in the first place.

The bus. I needed to get up early for the bus.

I hadn't set my alarm!

I scrambled to get up, trying to reach my phone to check the time without hitting Ashburn in the face like I had the previous day. Of course, he tried to hold onto me again.

"…Mph…why you up…" he groaned sleepily.

"Ashburn, let go of me!" I unwrapped his tail from my arm and quickly got to my feet, stepping away to grab my phone. To my immense relief, it was only 6:30; just enough time. Early enough that it would still be dark when we left, so we could get out without anyone else seeing him.

I started to go through my usual morning routine, yawning heavily the whole time. Ashburn wasn't faring any better—even _he_ didn't wake up this early normally. I cut all his meat and fish out of their packaging as he came slowly padding over and started to eat, albeit lethargically.

Before long we had to leave, and I poked my head out into the corridor to check if anyone was around. Of course, there wasn't—nobody else was stupid enough to actually _want_ to wake up before seven in the morning. We snuck down into the lobby without a problem, I left my door key on the reception desk, and as soon as Ashburn was out the front door he was up in the air, near-invisible in the autumn dawn.

I had warned him that it would be difficult to stay hidden once the sun came up, and that he'd either have to be very low down and moving from cover to cover, or high enough that people would dismiss his dark form for a bird. I had specifically told him not to hide in the clouds, lest he lose sight of the bus.

As I was exiting the building, rucksack over my shoulders and the large, exceedingly heavy bag of things from my apartment in my hands, my eye was drawn to the bike shelter. Where my bike was stored.

And I was leaving.

_On a bus._

I'd completely forgotten that I'd need to get rid of it, or sell it or…I could just leave it. Undo the lock and leave my bike out on the street. Someone would take it eventually, and I definitely didn't have time to actually sell it anywhere, nor could I cycle to the bus with my extra bag.

I swore as I dropped my rucksack to the paving slabs and started rifling through it for my bike lock key. I could faintly hear Ashburn's wings flapping overhead, practically sensing his confused, tilted head from here as he wondered what I was doing.

I was on two timers now—I needed to get to the bus on time, and I needed to be quick enough that Ashburn's curiosity didn't get the better of him. I fumbled with the tiny key until finally getting it in, undoing the lock and roughly pulling my bike out onto the street.

My work as done as it could be, I left it sitting against the side of the building, swung my rucksack back onto my shoulders and started jogging towards the bus station.

I was definitely going to be late.

Thankfully there was little to no traffic at this hour, so I didn't need to wait for traffic lights—I could just cross the road whenever I needed. But the additional weight of my other bag dragged me down, making progress agonizingly slow.

I almost whooped when the bright station sign came into view, and I saw my bus still in its stance; they had only just started boarding.

I rushed into the building and towards the self-service locker rental. My shaking hands fumbled on the touchscreen and I swore as I kept selecting the wrong options. Eventually it came up with the duration selection, and I selected the longest available; twelve weeks. It was much cheaper to keep my things in a locker than to rent a flat specifically for it, and I only had to come back every now and then to renew it.

As soon as the extra-large locker beeped open, I shoved my bag of things from my flat in, hurriedly entered my code and slammed it closed.

I almost sprinted back outside, slowing as I neared the bus. They were still boarding, thank God. I stared up and around at the dark sky, keeping my ears tuned for the sound of flapping wings. I started to panic a little when I couldn't detect any sign of Ashburn, but then a hushed "Hey!" underlaid with a short yelp caught my attention.

I scanned the area where he had called me from, just barely spotting a pair of bright yellow-green eyes in the dark, staring at me from the roof of a two-storey building. I allowed myself to relax a little, giving him a smile knowing he would see it, even from that distance.

That was only the first hurdle of the journey though.

As the boarding process continued over the next few minutes, I realized how busy the coach was. I stared down the length of the aisle, looking for a pair of empty seats but they'd already all been taken—there were scarcely few clear spaces left at all.

I braced myself as I took one towards the back, hoping the woman I was sat next to wasn't talkative.

"Hey there!"

Dammit.

I mumbled a greeting as I sat down, staring at the headrest of the chair in front of me and hoping she would get the message. This entire journey was going to be absolute torture if I couldn't even look out the window to keep an eye on Ashburn.

"Where you headed?" she had a distinctly southern American twang to her voice.

"…Inverness," I eventually replied, daring to look past her and out the side window as the coach began to move. I caught a slight flicker of movement from the roof Ashburn had been on, his wing blocking a light for a brief moment.

The woman began to babble on and on, and I did my best to tune her out. Whether she ever picked up on the fact I didn't want to talk I wasn't sure, but all I had to do was nod and agree every now and then to set her off on another ramble.

I kept trying to get glimpses out of the windows without catching anyone's eye, and every moment I couldn't see Ashburn would add a little more panic. I'd imagine him getting lost, or tired, and losing the bus—if that happened, we'd likely never find each other again. Then occasionally I'd spot him running between some trees or swooping around a hill, and the anxiety would be washed away by relief, only for the cycle to begin anew.

The bus was beginning to feel more and more like a steel prison.

We were a few hours into the trip, and had passed the border from England into Scotland. I was beginning to get worried about Ashburn's stamina, noticing him trailing behind more and more as time went on.

Then the bus rounded a bend into a glen, mountains rising up on either side…and a solid wall of grey rain drifting towards us.

I cursed under my breath and clutched my head in my hands, no longer caring who I looked weird to as my eyes flickered across every window I could see, desperately searching for his dark form.

"You okay there sweetheart?" the southern woman had finally picked up on my distress as I half stood up in my seat to get a better view.

"Nope!" I blurted out, not focusing even slightly on the conversation.

A few seconds later, we hit the curtain of rain, the sound of water splattering against the vehicle surrounding me, sending shivers up my spine as I imagined Ashburn trying to cope in the cold. Then there was a sudden rise of murmuring between the passengers, which quickly turned into excited babbling on the left side. Chatter of "Whoa, look at that!" and "What is it?" followed by the sound of unzipping bags, then flashes and beeps of cameras and phones drew me out of my seat and into the aisle, pushing to see out of one of the windows and not caring whose attention I garnered anymore.

My breath hitched in my throat as I saw Ashburn raggedly running right alongside the road, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth as he just barely kept up. He spotted me and made half-wailing roar, his voice sounding in my head "Stop!".

The ground suddenly disappeared beneath him as we crossed a small bridge, and the drop caught him off-guard. He tripped headfirst into the ditch, and I only saw him flailing for a brief moment before he vanished out of sight. Heart hammering in my chest and breathing heavily, I rushed to the front of the bus, stumbling but catching myself on the headrests.

"Stop the bus!" I called to the driver, who had been glancing between his rear-view mirror and the road since all the excitement started.

"Can't just stop in the middle of a dual-carriageway. You got a problem?" he grunted.

"Yes, I…I just need to get off now!" I was almost hopping from foot to foot as we drove further and further away from where Ashburn had fallen, knuckles white as I gripped the handrail leading down the steps. "I've got camping gear to travel on foot, I just need to get off as quickly as possible!"

"I can let you off at the next lay-by," he looked in his rear-view mirror again at the other passengers, who were still glued to the windows, hoping to catch another glimpse of the 'strange creature'. Christ, how many photos had they gotten? If word got out properly about him…

Every second that passed was torment as I squinted at the road, searching for my escape route. After several minutes of tense silence, relief sprang in my chest as we slowed and pulled into a small car park. The door opened, and I was released out into the rain, hauling my rucksack out of the luggage compartment as soon as it unlocked. Without a moment's hesitation I began to run back along the grass verge by the carriageway—back to Ashburn.

He couldn't have gotten lost, he would know to keep following the road, and we hadn't made any turn-offs. All the balled-up energy and adrenaline from my wait on the bus pushed me further and faster, cars and trucks flashing past in the opposite direction. I heard Ashburn's cheerful cry as he spotted me only a few moments before I actually saw him. He seemed to be uninjured despite his fall as he came loping towards me, but he was clearly exhausted. I gestured him away from the road as I started to run towards a thicket of forest instead—we needed to get away from all the people and out of the rain as soon as possible.

I climbed over a small wooden fence that surrounded it as he caught up to me, and we entered the cover of the closely-spaced trees, barely enough space between them for Ashburn to fit through. We had to fight through various bushes and undergrowth before coming out into a small, mostly dry space hidden underneath the interlaced branches and leaves.

We collapsed onto the dry soil, panting and chests heaving as we tried to recover. I couldn't complain though—I'd only sprinted a few miles, Ashburn had run and flown over a hundred without stopping. I pulled myself achingly over to him, placing my hand on his quickly rising and falling back.

"Hey, how are you feeling after all that?"

"Everything hurts…" he moaned; his muzzle scrunched up in pain.

"Oh God I'm sorry, this is my fault for coming up with this stupid plan in the first place. I don't know what the hell I was thinking…" I brushed my hand alongside the line of vertebrae that followed his spine, careful not to press too hard and agitate his bruises. I wiped all the droplets of rain from his scales that hadn't already rolled off themselves, glad that we had good cover from the weather. "Are you cold at all?"

"Kind of…" he mumbled, moving as little as possible. "My insides feel hot and achey…"

"Alright, I don't really trust setting up a campfire here, so I'll get the tent out and you can rest in there," I gave him a light rub on the head before beginning the complicated but familiar task of setting it up.

I was feeling extremely glad I'd chosen to go for the larger, more spacious two-man option when I bought it, since Ashburn would actually be able to fit inside. This meant it was more difficult to put together, but when you're spending at least half of your life inside a tent, you want to have a little extra headroom.

Ashburn started watching, intrigued, while still lying on the ground. As I inserted the final support pole and raised the whole thing up, he made a little chirp of excitement. I hammered in all the pegs to hold it in place and unzipped the entrance, gesturing him inside.

"Here, get out of the rain and you'll feel better," I got out a towel as he stood up, trembling a little from his sore limbs, and quickly rubbed him dry as he squeezed inside, so he didn't get the interior wet. The rain was only getting heavier as time went on, more and more of it managing to get through the trees to our little hiding spot.

I sat inside the entrance and took off my walking boots and rucksack, storing them in the space between the inner and outer layers of the tent. As I expected, Ashburn took up most of the room, but there was still enough that I could comfortably sit, and later sleep, against his side.

The rain didn't slow in the slightest, so we ended up staying in that spot for the rest of the day, only leaving the cover of canvas when absolutely necessary. Once Ashburn was feeling more like himself, we chatted on and off for a while, his usual thread of questions revolving around little human things I never would have thought of otherwise.

I found myself completely at ease resting in the crook of his wing, slow breathing and a quiet but steady purring in his chest relaxing me into a feeling of comfortable security. A week ago I wouldn't have thought this possible in the slightest, but here we were. Chilling in a tent with a Night Fury slash interdimensional alien: this was my new normal.

And I was actually really quite happy about that.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

The next morning when we set off again, it was still drizzling rain, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. I was glad; going from the nice weather Aiden and I had since I came to Earth, then straight into that heavy shower was quite scary at first. But now I was a bit more used to it, it wasn't as bad; it was almost like swimming. I didn't like the feeling of droplets dripping down me though—at least when I was in the lake I was completely surrounded by water, but I could feel lots of tiny tickling wet spots all over my scales, and I had to keep shaking them off periodically.

I knew it would take a while, but I couldn't wait until all my senses stopped being so...sensitive.

My muscles were still a little sore from yesterday, so I didn't really feel up to flying, and instead walked with Aiden as we continued north. Within the first hour his walking pace was driving me mad.

"Come ooon, I _know_ you can walk faster!" I continually poked and nudged him forward with my nose and paws, trying to entice him to speed up.

"Ashburn stop, you're going to make me fall over!" he laughed. "I could jog for a bit, but I'm trying to think of a plan."

I relented, wanting to hear his thoughts. "A plan for what?"

"Well originally I was hoping we'd make it a lot further north using the bus, which _wasn't_ your fault—" he stressed, placing his hand on my cheek as I looked down. "—it was horrible of me to put you through that. But we only have six days before we need to be at my parent's house, and I cannot walk thirty miles a day, even if we were going as the crow flies. So, we could get to another town and get a bus again, which I really don't want to do, or maybe a train because then you might be able to lie on top of it to rest without that many people seeing you? But that would involve getting into a proper city, and then you'd _definitely_ get seen…I really don't know," Aiden sighed.

I hummed as I tried to think of any more options. I _did_ want to see a train…

Then my eyes widened in excitement as I remembered the How To Train Your Dragon film.

"Fly with me!"

Aiden snorted a laugh. "Oh yes, let me just go hundreds of feet into the air without a parachute, what a brilliant idea!"

I drooped as Aiden immediately shattered my hopes. "But…I wouldn't let you fall."

"It's not that," he returned to a more serious tone. "I really don't like heights. Like…even a couple of meters scares me."

I gave him a quizzical look. "Why? Do you think you'd fall and hurt yourself?"

"I guess. I really don't know; it's an irrational fear, it's just always there," Aiden shrugged.

"Would you be okay if we were just on the ground and you were on my back?"

"I…don't think so—I'd still be a ways off the ground. I'd just rather _know_ I'm safe," he said with finality, walking onward.

I hung back a little, feeling hurt and unable to respond. Aiden thought I wouldn't try to keep him safe? Why? I got lost in my own thoughts for a while, trailing behind and feeling the rain slowly slide down my muzzle.

Eventually, Aiden noticed and stopped, letting me catch up to him.

"What's on your mind?"

"I…never told you the real reason I came here, did I?" I sat down and met his eyes.

He seemed a little surprised to have the question turned around on him, and his mouth moved wordlessly for a moment.

"Uh…you wanted to see the multiverse for yourself and help people, right?"

I nodded. "And remember how I told you…we don't see physical things from the Above, only emotions and strong thoughts?" I hesitated, beginning to worry that he'd be angry at me about what I was about to tell him.

"Yeah…"

"Well, when I was leaving the Above, I knew I wanted to find someone to help. When I went looking, I found someone who had felt really sad, and guilty about something…and that was you."

I gazed imploringly into his confused eyes, swallowing nervously. A million different emotions jabbed at my insides; worry, pity, hope, fear…but through it all was one clear, strong thought, casting my doubt to the side and bolstering my confidence.

"I came here to help _you_."

Aiden stood there, mouth agape and dumbstruck, blinking rapidly as tears began to roll down his face.

I stepped forward to try and give him a hug, but he stumbled back, shaking his head and turning to run away. He only went a small distance before slowing to a walk again, but I could still hear him crying as he tried to cover it up, devolving into hiccups and sniffles. I slowly approached as he recovered, moving to the side so he could see me.

"I'm sorry…"

Aiden let out a shaky sigh, beginning to walk a little more steadily and falling back into his stride. I took it as permission to come closer, gently nuzzling his shoulder in apology.

His reddened eyes met my own again. "I'm…not going to talk about…her…with you. I need to talk to my dad when I get home…whenever that is."

"Flying would be a lot faster…" I mumbled.

He turned to give me a thoughtful look, sniffled once, before letting out an exasperated sigh. "You're not going to let go of this idea, are you?"

"I really want to fly with you!" I jumped at the chance to try and convince him a little more. "I promise I'll do my absolute best to keep you safe and make sure you never fall! That's why I told you why I came to Earth in the first place…I want you to know you don't have to be scared when you're with me."

Aiden smiled down at the ground as I said this, then raised his head again, seeming to examine my expression for a moment.

"We'll give it two days, and if we haven't thought of any other options by then…we'll see."

Excitement burst in my chest and I leapt forward, wrapping my wings around him and tackling him to the ground.

Gently, of course.

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

As we were making our way around the outskirts of a little village, and I was doing my best to stay hidden, my earfins were twitching back and forward on my head as I picked up all sorts of new sounds. A lot of these turned out to be animals I'd not seen yet that humans kept on farms, and Aiden impressed me by being able to put a noise to a name for each and every one—chickens, pigs, a dog or two, geese, horses…they were all here! And thanks to my eyesight, I was able to get good looks at each of them, even though we were far away.

We cautiously followed a rough dirt track past field after field, and I was ready to leap into the cover of the trees that ran on both sides at any moment if we heard a vehicle coming.

"Are those more sheeps?" I asked, picking up a new noise; a long, low braying.

"_Sheep_," Aiden corrected me, laughing. "And no, those are…cows," he stopped walking, looking a little pale.

"What's wrong?" I looked back at him, then followed his gaze forward. There were around twenty large black and white animals in their own grassy field, with short tails and legs that seemed too thin to support their bodies. "They're just another animal."

Aiden moved to the opposite side of the track, getting as far away from the fence between us and the cows as he could, and then started forward again, keeping a careful eye on them as he went.

I did the same, wondering if there was something dangerous about them that Aiden knew and I didn't. All they did was stare at us as we made our way along, flicking their tails back and forward, but Aiden seemed to get more and more nervous as we passed alongside the field. Then when we were at around two-thirds of its length, Aiden suddenly broke into a sprint. I quickly followed, and we didn't stop until we were out of sight of the seemingly-passive cows.

"What's so bad about them? Do they do something if you get too close to them?" I asked.

"No…well, _most_ of them don't…" he panted, taking a few moments to regain his breath. "Honestly, they probably wouldn't have done anything even if you flew right up to them, I've just…had a bad experience with one. Years ago, I was riding my bike, and opened a gate to go through a field, just like that one, thinking the cows wouldn't do more than look. Then a bull—that's the name for a male cow—comes charging at me. And it doesn't stop."

My eyes widened in shock.

"For _three. Miles._ That thing kept chasing me…thank God for cattle grids. But thanks to him, I am now extremely paranoid about being near any cows."

"That's so mean! Why did it do that?"

"I have no idea, I guess it was just being protective," he sighed, and we lapsed into silence for a moment.

"Hey, you know how we could easily avoid having to go near any cows again?" I piped up, and Aiden immediately snorted, knowing exactly what I was going to say.

"Yes, I know, by _flying,_" he rolled his eyes, and I gave him my best pleading look, even adding a small whine. "One more day," he promised, holding up a finger. "One more day, and then we'll _try_ me riding on your back while you're _walking_. We won't be flying from the get-go."

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

I huffed as Aiden carefully picked his way along a rocky riverside, and the progress he made in two minutes of half-climbing, I could do in a single bound. The river was far too deep and fast-flowing for him to wade through, but it was narrow enough he was confident he could find a crossing point somewhere.

Of course, I'd already suggested I could get him across in a matter of moments, but his response was the usual, immediate 'No'.

I passed the time by having fun swimming against the current and catching the occasional fish, finding that now I was more confident in the water, I could relax even with the speed of it.

As we neared a small but wide waterfall cascading downward, Aiden called to me over the sound of the rushing river.

"Ashburn, look! Jumping salmon!" he pointed to the base of the falls, where the water frothed. As I watched, a glittering silver fish leapt from the surface, soared through the air for a brief instant, before hitting the edge of the rocks, just shy of the upper riverbed.

My jaw dropped open as I watched several more try the same thing, shooting out of the water as if they had wings, only a few making it up high enough to continue swimming upstream. I glanced at Aiden, completely amazed, to see him grinning back at me.

"This seems like as good a spot as any for a lunch break," he laughed, sitting down on the rocks at the top of the waterfall.

I simply watched the salmon in awe for a few minutes more, absolutely stunned by the spectacle playing out in front of me. Their tiny scales shone in the sunlight and their whole bodies flicked powerfully from side to side, pushing themselves to amazing speeds.

Smelling Aiden's lunch as he ate it made my stomach growl a little, so feeling a little devious I jumped to the top edge of the waterfall and crouched down, hanging myself over the side a little. I dug my claws into the riverbed, fighting the current as I opened my mouth, waiting for my meal to come to me.

Sure enough, in a matter of seconds another fish came flying out the water to meet me and I grabbed its tail between my teeth, biting down and throwing my neck back, chucking it into the air and then catching it across the length of its body, quickly swallowing it.

I giggled as my food literally threw itself at me, over and over, one even jumping high enough that it went directly into my mouth and down my throat. It didn't take long before I was full, but the salmon were still coming, so I decided to help them out a little. I retracted my teeth and each time I caught one, instead of eating it, I'd turn and drop it in the higher part of the river, and watch it swim away to make sure I hadn't hurt it by mistake. I continued this way until there didn't seem to be any more salmon coming, at least for the moment.

"Only you would do that," Aiden smirked as I joined him up on the riverbank.

"What? They wanted up the waterfall, and I could easily help them, so I did!"

"Come on," he snickered. "I think I can see a crossing point up this way."

Thankfully the ground up here was much flatter, so it only took a minute to get to the series of large boulders and outcroppings he had seen. As I looked at them though, I couldn't help but worry.

"Aiden this doesn't look safe…if you slip you'll really hurt yourself," I whimpered at the mental image, the dark crevices between the crags looking far too ominous for my liking.

"The tops are pretty dry, I just need to hop across a few gaps so I'll be fine," he reassured me, scrambling up onto the first.

"No, wait!" I climbed up beside him, curling my tail around behind him and extending my wings a little, ready to jump at a moment's notice. "I'll catch you if you slip."

Aiden sighed. "Is this about getting me to fly with you? Because I told you—"

"No! I really don't want you getting hurt or…or…" I tried to banish the scenes my mind was coming up with, knowing I could prevent them. "I don't know what I would do without you…"

He took a deep breath, his posture sagging.

"Alright, let's try this then," Aiden conceded, flapping his arms at his sides.

"YES! Thank you, thank you, you won't regret it!" I wanted to jump around and tackle-hug him again, but I wasn't going to risk anything while we were on the top of this boulder. I ended up prancing in place, vigorously wagging my tail and pulling him close to my chest with a paw.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

Ashburn's excitement was infectious, despite the fact I was about to do everything I feared. I tried to slow my racing heart as he let me go, lying down on the rock.

"So you want me just to…" I gestured vaguely at his back, and he nodded enthusiastically.

I stepped carefully over his neck with jelly-like legs and sat down, feeling like I would crush him or something, especially with the added weight of my rucksack. Which was stupid, he was more than strong enough, but it didn't stem my feeling of guilt.

I took a sharp breath as he slowly stood up, and my nice, solid connection to the ground was stolen away. Due to the width of his neck and shoulders though, my legs fit fairly snugly against his sides, giving me something to grip with.

"Is this good?" Ashburn asked, turning his head to look at me.

"U-Uh…as good as it'll get, I guess…" I started my familiar breathing exercise I used for anxiety, trying to prevent a full-on panic attack.

Ashburn was clearly well aware of my stress, as he stood still for a few minutes and kept an eye on me as I acclimatized to the height. I stared determinedly down at the rocks, trying to banish the tingling that was running all through my legs.

"I'm gonna start walking now," he warned me, and I braced myself.

His legs were long enough and far enough apart that he could simply step across the gaps I was going to jump, and while this was probably safer, it sure didn't feel like it to me. His shoulders rocked up and down as he shifted his weight from left to right, and I flinched, leaning forward to wrap my arms around his neck. Feeling a little more secure, I tried to move with him, leaning my waist from side to side to match his movements.

Thankfully there was only a small drop to the other riverbank, but I still winced and tried to pull myself back, as though I'd slide forward and over Ashburn's head. I untensed once we were back on flat ground, and over the next half an hour simply tried to get used to the rhythm of movements, Ashburn stopping every now and then to check up on me. To my surprise, I was beginning to feel a little more at ease.

"Do you think we could try running?"

I knew the question was going to come sooner or later, and I also knew I probably wouldn't be able to get any more used to Ashburn walking than I was already. If this was going to work, we'd need to be able to cover more distance, and we needed to do it _now_ before I got second thoughts.

"Go for it."

Ashburn gave me a toothy smile, and I could feel the energy building up in his muscles underneath me. He began to accelerate, changing to a light jog. I found myself bouncing on his back, and had to force myself to relax, taking deep breaths as my whole body quickly rose and fell with his gait. I was now completely at his mercy.

After a short while, he sped up again into a run, the hammering of my heart matching rhythm with the pounding of his paws against the ground. If Ashburn stumbled now, I would likely get thrown off him, and get seriously injured. I tried to keep my breathing slow, despite the amount of oxygen-filled blood my body was trying to use, and actually began to feel a little excited. Ashburn and I were beginning to fall into sync, and seeing the ground ripping past us at speed seemed to bury some of my fear underneath excitement and adrenaline.

We were approaching the base of a large hill now, its slopes covered in rough brush and stones. Ashburn made a slow turn, and I found myself pushed into his neck a little from the centrifugal force, making me feel a little more secure. He switched into a full gallop as we rose up the incline, gravity pulling me against his shoulders on the slant. I looked behind to see the world falling away from us at a great rate, and finally let out a small laugh, Ashburn trilling in glee as I finally gave in.

But as we were nearing the summit, I noticed his wings beginning to unfurl and a sound building in his throat—an exhilarated warbling quaver that rose and fell as his paws hit the ground. It began to build in intensity as the slope flattened out, and I realized what he was about to do.

"Stop!" I shouted over the wind, and Ashburn looked back at me, confused. "_Stop!_"

He dug his claws into the ground and I clung on for dear life as he bled all his speed in a matter of seconds, coming to a halt in a sitting position. I began to shake as the shock of everything I'd just done hit me straight in the gut.

"Please let me down," I said quietly, my fear of heights kicking in as I found myself several metres above the ground. Ashburn slowly lowered himself onto all fours again, lying down, and I almost fell off him, discovering that my arms and legs really didn't work anymore. I was shivering all over, the shock, fright and excitement all combining into a chemical cocktail that my body didn't know how to cope with.

I collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily as Ashburn worried over me.

"What's wrong? I thought it was going really well…" he pushed me gently up with his nose, crawling forward so I was leaning against him. When I gave no response other than continuing to pant like my life depended on it, he wrapped his wing securely around me, holding me close.

"…it…was…" I said between breaths, trying to regain my ability to speak. "But…you were about to start…flying…weren't you?" I gave him a serious look, and he guiltily turned away.

"…you were enjoying it…I thought you were ready!" he argued.

"I was starting to feel safe, yes…but being a couple of metres from the ground, and being a few _hundred_ are very different things. We're doing this on my terms, remember?"

"…Sorry…" he gave me his best puppy eyes, and I folded, putting my arm over his neck and scratching the top of his head. He leaned into me, licking my cheek and I grimaced.

"Ugh, I was wondering when you were going to start doing that," I tried to wipe his saliva from my face, to little success.

He laughed. "Don't you like it?"

"It's a nice gesture but…not particularly, no," I chuckled.

We sat in comfortable silence for a while, overlooking the surrounding countryside as I recovered my confidence. Then, as the sun was shining through the gap between the clouds and the horizon, the sky turning orange, I felt ready.

"Okay, let's do this," I got to my feet with a grunt.

"Are you sure?" Ashburn stayed lying down.

"Don't lie, you want this more than I do, c'mon."

He bounced to his paws with a grin, and then remembered he had to lie down to let me get on.

"Actually wait," I stopped him, and got a curious look. "Sitting down on your neck like that feels strange, I want to see if I can get on your back when you're standing."

"Okay," he watched as I tried to pull myself up, to little success. I could get my shoulders above him without too much difficulty, but swinging the rest of me over seemed impossible. Then Ashburn pushed his foreleg up underneath my feet, giving me the needed boost.

"Thanks," I said, still feeling guilty. "I'm not…too heavy for you, am I? I don't want to—"

"No, of course not! I couldn't have run all this way if you were. Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," I shook my head in disbelief of what I was about to do.

Ashburn walked over to the edge of the hill, a steep slope falling away from us, and I gulped. He crouched down, and I readied myself, leaning forward and putting my arms around him again. Then, he sprang forward, wings unfurling to their full length. For a few terrifying moments all I could feel was the sinking of my stomach as we fell.

My fears overrode everything else as my instincts screamed in terror, recognizing the rising sensation inside my body as only one thing—an imminent impact with the ground. I clung for my life to Ashburn's neck, shrieking and trying to bury my face in his scales, as though I could make everything go away if I couldn't see it.

"Aiden!" I felt the concerned warble vibrate through his throat and into my body. "Aiden, come on, you can do this! There's nothing to be scared of, I'm right here!"

The motion of his body swayed up and down as he flapped his wings, the terrifying drop switching to a reassuring rise, and back again. When the expected crash into the unforgiving earth never came, my fear started to abate a little. I felt his paws reach up and awkwardly hold onto my boots, pulling me down onto his neck a little, helping me feel a little safer.

"Please...I want to share this with you…you're everything to me," Ashburn whimpered, his words snapping me out of my frozen state. "I trust you…I put my life in your hands… Can you trust me with yours?"

I was left in shock, my awareness of the world drifting away in lieu of this revelation. I opened my eyes, leaning back with my mouth agape to see him looking tearfully back at me.

"E-everything?" I forced out the word, my throat clogging up.

He nodded. "Y-you're all I h-have."

I gawked for a moment, unsure what to say. Finally, I gave into my emotions and leaned forward again, wrapping my arms around his head in an improvised hug.

"Of _course_ I trust you."

He closed his eyes and murred, and I lay against his scales once again, only this time without fear.

After a few seconds we broke apart as reality faded back in, both smiling. I sat back up, repeating _'I trust you' _over and over in my head, fighting off the fear and seeing everything in a new light.

We were gliding far above the countryside, the sunset casting long shadows from the trees and surrounding hills. Where the rays of light caught the forests they shone in brilliant hues of red, green and gold, autumnal leaves mixed with those of evergreens. Roads twisted and turned not unlike the rivers, cars scurrying like ants in lines. The world looked so tiny from here, and yet we weren't more than a few hundred feet from the ground. The view, combined with the rushing of wind blowing my fair hair around my head like a tornado, the adrenaline and speed, my still-lingering nerves over being at such a height, created a harmony of feeling that was impossible to describe.

I took a deep breath and whooped, throwing my arms up as Ashburn roared in elation. For all we knew, any people below us could have heard that, but honestly I couldn't care less—somebody could take a picture of me right now, and I'd just go with it.

I might even pose.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

**Angela, Phoebe and Miranda**

10:33:** Angela sent (1) file**

**P:** What is that?

**A:** I don't know, I just heard my dog barking and I thought it was a fox or something. Then I run to the back door and see that!

**M:** I know you're trying to flex your Photoshop skills on us Angela, but this is clearly fake. It's conveniently blurry and very dark so you can't make anything out

**A:** I swear this is real! I looked it up and some people actually got clearer pictures! Here, I'll send you a link

10:37: **Angela sent (1) link**

**P:** Wow…those…would be difficult to fake.

**A:** Right?

**M:** HAHAHAHAHA I actually recognize this! Okay, this is definitely fake.

**A:** What?

**P:** What is it?

**M:** It's from this stupid kids film a few years ago. Point being, there is no way this can be real. No animal looks like that.

**P:** Oh yeah I remember now. Toothless right?

**A: **I know what I saw, and that is it!

**M:** Seriously, you two need to stop smoking weed.

\- O -

\- O – O – O – O -

\- O -

**Author's Note**

Another long chapter! I actually thought this was going to be like 6000 words…but I'm sure none of you will complain :P Summer is coming to an end for me soon though, and I have no idea when the next chapter will be even close to done. I'm expecting college to be even more difficult this year so it might not be for a good few months unfortunately. I will however, continue to post progress updates on my profile so you can see what's happening.

Much thanks to my beta-readers CrazyGamer313, SteenGooier, netWARIOR and YaboiArt, and of course thank you to all of you for reading this! Reviews are always highly appreciated, or if you know some people who might enjoy this story, share it with them!

Rowan


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